

A symbol placed 
serious or a repeatec 
A —A 

Ab — L 

Act~C 
C — C 
Cl — C 

Coh — M 
Con — C 
Cst — Ir 

Z) or 5 — Oi 

£ —El 
Gr — G 
H—Bi 
/— N 
Inc — Id 




Book_ AJ-L I u 





COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr. 


K. — Avis-waiu ui uiuixis^. xve write tne seiiteuee. 


ttention to a 
the sentence, 
s. (122, 123, 
4) 

^r. (108,124, 

133-482) 

p) 

239,471-482) 

ression. 

(471-482) 


L — Sentence too loosely constructed. (471-482) 

M — Margin. (69, 129, 131) 

MS — Manuscript, General appearance unsatisfactory. (69-74) 
Fari — A dangling or misrelated participle. 

P — Punctuation. (488-504) 

QA — Question not answered or problem not solved. (213, 214) 
R — Unjustifiable repetition of word or thought. (305) 

/?e/— Faulty reference of pronouns. (453, 454) 

S — Sentence. Begin a new sentence at the point indicated. 
(446-449) 

Sub — Subordinate one of the statements. (273, 475) 

— Spelling. (505-518) 

Syl — Syllabication. Divide only between syllables. (70, 71) 

T — Wrong tense. (459-462) 

U — Unity. Rewrite the sentence. 

V — Vary sentence type. (213, 273, 331-333) 

W — Use correct or better word. Consult dictionary. (519-536) 
^ — Half-sentence. Complete the principal clause. (446-449) 
# — Leave more space between words. (71-73) 

A — Supply the word or words omitted. (125, 469, 470) 

^ — Begin a paragraph here. (75-86) 

No — Don’t begin a paragraph. (75-86) 
f U, ^IC, — Paragraph unity, arrangement, connectives, emphasis. (79- 
86 ) 

] — Indent farther. 

? — Disputed or questioned statement. 

II — Use parallel structure. (99, 101) 

X — Find the error in the line. 


VOL. II 
















I 



» 




; 








4 


L . ^ 


> t 


. A •> 








A Polo Match Between the United States and Argentina 





Knglish in Action 

^ Volume Two 


jf^ C. TRESSLER 

‘i 

Head of the Department of English 
Richmond Hill High School 
New York City 
AND 

H. H. CARTER 


Head of the Department of English 
Indiana University 
Bloomington, Indiana 



D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY 

BOSTON . NEW YORK CHICAGO 

ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO DALLAS 

LONDON 



Copyright, 1933, by 
J. C. Tressler 
AND H. H. Carter 


No part of the material covered by this 
copyright may be reproduced in any form 
without written permission of the publisher. 

3 A 3 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 





PREFACE 


English in Action, Volume Two, for the tenth and eleventh years of the 
senior high school, has a maximum of examples and practice and a min¬ 
imum of theory and rules. Heaviest emphasis is laid on stimulating, 
enticing, and helping pupils to speak and write correct, vigorous, lively, 
colorful English and to form the habit of using their best English. 

In many schools the first problem of the Enghsh teacher is to arouse 
in pupils a keen desire to speak and write better, to develop a language 
conscience. To help him I have tried to find attractive and pointed 
illustrations and examples, to devise interesting and profitable exercises, 
to provide a variety of challenging composition topics to select from, 
and to show boys and girls the value of the work they are doing. 

The worst fault in the average school speech or theme is talking or 
writing too much and saying too little. To reduce the number of thin 
themes I have pointed out in most of the chapters, especially in the one 
headed “Something to Say,” ways of securing material before writing 
or speaking. 

Because many compositions show a lack of purpose, organization, 
and revision, stress is laid on (1) aiming to entertain, instruct, impress, 
convince, or persuade a definite audience, (2) planning before speaking 
or writing, and (3) criticizing and revising thoroughly the first draft of 
a theme. 

Business men and college instructors say that high-school graduates 
canT spell, punctuate, or speak or write correct and effective sentences. 
Since most pupils in the upper years of high school need both projects 
and drill, about one-third of the book is practice in capitalizing, punctu¬ 
ating, enunciating, pronouncing, spelling, winning words, and correcting 
and improving sentences. These drill chapters contain numerous mastery 
tests so constructed that either the teacher or the pupils can score them 
quickly and accurately. 

Many models, chiefly pupil themes, are introduced to show pupils 
how to go to work and to set reasonable standards of attainment. Mr. 
Maurice R. Robinson in Saplings says, “One may not hope to attain the 
heights of the masters, argues the high-school mmd, but may not one 


IV 


PREFACE 


hope to equal the attainment of the fellow student in the neighboring high 
school?’^ 

Systematic, thorough speech training prepares for life and reduces the 
quantity of writing necessary. Hence in the chapters on extemporaneous 
speaking, argument and debate, reading and reciting, enunciation and 
pronunciation, and parliamentary practice, I have included definite sug¬ 
gestions, examples, and an abundance of practice. Most of the compo¬ 
sitions called for in other chapters may be either oral or written. 

Believing that no two teachers will wish to present the work in exactly 
the same order, I have divided the book into two parts, ‘^Exercises in 
Speaking and Writing’’ and “The Sentence and the Word.” This ar¬ 
rangement and a full index and table of contents make it easy for the 
teacher to find the drill exercises which the class most needs at the hour 
and to sandwich them between the speeches and the themes. 

The text is adapted to the needs of pupils of varying ability. It has a 
program of creative writing (short stories, feature stories, editorials, 
articles for the school magazine and the class paper) for students who 
have mastered the minimum essentials, thorough drill on fundamentals 
for pupils who need it, and enjoyable projects for all. Few classes will 
have time for all the speaking and writing practice suggested. The 
teacher therefore will have an opportunity to select according to the 
needs and ability of the pupils. 

To a number of my coworkers in the Newtown High School and 
the Richmond High School and to English teachers in other high schools 
I am indebted for illustrative compositions and helpful suggestions. 
Mr. H. A. Miller, Jr., head of the English Department and assistant 
principal of the Petersburg (Virginia) High School; Mr. F. W. Treible, 
head of the English Department of the Utica (New York) Free Academy; 
Miss Evelina 0. Wiggins, head of the English Department of the Lynch¬ 
burg (Virginia) High School; and Mr. C. J. M. Blume, of the Department 
of Education of the University of Virginia, read carefully sections of the 
manuscript and made many definite and valuable suggestions. Professor 
H. W. Hastings, of the New York State College for Teachers, and Mr. 
Charles E. Rhodes, principal of the Bennett High School of Buffalo, 
generously permitted me to use some of the Regents questions which 
they devised. To Mrs. Florence Adams Allen, a librarian of the Newtown 
High School, I am indebted for the book lists on pages 92 and 94. 

For the privilege of reprinting copyrighted material I am grateful not 
only to the companies and individuals mentioned in footnotes but also 


PREFACE 


V 


to the New York Telephone Company, Harper and Brothers, the Outlook, 
R. H. Macy & Company, William Jennings Bryan, Dr. Frank Crane, 
Dr. Frank W. Scott, Claude G. Bowers, the Saturday Review of Liter¬ 
ature, the New York Times, the Associated Press, and the New York Sun. 

J. C. T. 

I have attempted to include enough material in Volume Two to provide 
for the required English work of the tenth and eleventh years of the 
high school and for a twelfth year of elective work in schools which 
desire it. This plan makes easily possible the adapting of the work to the 
needs of different types of pupils. For assistance in securing pupil themes 
I am indebted to the following teachers of English: Miss Martha Dorsey, 
head of the English Department of the George Washington (Indianapolis, 
Indiana) High School; Miss Anna L. Finfrock, of the Morton (Richmond, 
Indiana) Senior High School; Mrs. Mary Hill Sankey, of the Garfield 
(Terre Haute, Indiana) High School; Miss Goldie Shepherd, of the Michi¬ 
gan City (Indiana) High School; Miss Flora W. Snyder, of the Hammond 
(Indiana) High School; and Miss Blanche Wellons, head of the English 
Department of the Bloomington (Indiana) High School. For aid in 
securing illustrations from high school newspapers I am indebted to the 
following teachers of Journalism: Miss Rowena Harvey, of the South Side 
(Fort Wayne, Indiana) High School; and Miss Dorothy Robertson, of 
the Bloomington (Indiana) High School. For advice in selecting material 
for the chapter on “Publication” I am indebted to Joseph A. Wright, 
Professor of Journalism, Indiana University. For the privilege of reprint¬ 
ing published matter I am indebted to the Indiana Bell Telephone Com¬ 
pany and to the following Indiana high school publications: The Arsenal 
Cannon (Indianapolis); The Optimist (Bloomington); The Reflector (Bloom¬ 
ington) ; The Rushlite (Rushville); and The South Side Times (Fort Wayne). 

H. H. C. 





CONTENTS 

PART I. EXERCISES IN SPEAKING AND WRITING 

Chapter Page 

I. Conversation. 3 

Talk and Conversation. 3 

Value of Conversation. 3 

Voice and Enunciation . 5 

The Good Listener. 6 

Something to Say. 7 

Topics for Conversation. 8 

Language of Conversation. 9 

Good Manners.10 

Compliment.12 

Contradiction.13 

Talking Business . ..13 

Telephone Conversation.14 

II. Speaking and Reading. 21 

Speaking .21 

Reading Aloud and Reciting.38 

How to Memorize .44 

III. Extemporaneous Speaking.49 

Importance .49 

Habits .50 

Posture.50 

Mannerisms and Nervousness .51 

Audience Sense.52 

Earnestness.52 

Enunciation.53 

Voice.53 

Purpose.53 

Material.54 

Outline.54 

Notes. 56 

Practice.57 

Beginning and Ending.59 

vii 


































CONTENTS 


viii 

Chapteb Page 

Words, Sentences, and Paragraphs.61 

Variety.62 

Pause.62 

Gestures.62 

Apology.63 

Concreteness and Reinforcement.64 

Criticism Outline.64 ' 

On the Platform.65 

Radio.67 

IV. How TO Prepare a Manuscript.69 

Division of Words .70 

Legibility.71 

Manuscript for Publication .74 

V. Building a Paragraph.75 

Paragraph Development.75 

Topic Sentence.76 

Clincher Sentence.78 

Paragraph Unity.79 

Coherence.80 

Emphasis.84 

VI. Something to Say.87 

Know your Subject.87 

Observation.87 

Note-Taking.88 

Card Catalog.91 

Selecting What to Read.91 

Useful Reference Books.92 

VII. Building a Composition.96 

Subject.96 

Planning.96 

Purpose.97 

Main Topics and Subtopics .98 

How to Write a Topical Outline.99 

Sentence Outline.102 

Writing and Revising.103 

Unity.104 

Coherence.106 

Clearness.108 

Emphasis.109 









































CONTENTS 


IX 


Chapteb Page 

Introduction.Ill 

Conclusion.HI 

VIII. The Letter .119 

Business Letter.119 

Parts of a Business Letter.120 

Letter Picture.129 

Paper and Folding. 129 

Asking for Information.134 

Hurry-up Letter. 135 

Collection.136 

Sales Letter.137 

Letter to a Legislator or City Executive.141 

Telegram.142 

Letter Confirming a Telegram.143 

Other Types of Business Letters.145 

Friendly Letter.146 

Heading, Salutation, Complimentary Close.146 

Body.148 

Paper.148 

Informal Discussion.151 

To Teacher .154 

Apology and Explanation.155 

Introduction.156 

Letters of Courtesy.157 

Thanks.157 

Congratulation.158 

Condolence .159 

Informal Notes of Invitation and Reply.159 

Formal Notes .162 

Visiting-Card Invitations .164 

IX. Explanation and Essay.165 

How to Explain .165 

Definition.170 

Machines and Processes.174 

Facts and Ideas .176 

Character Sketch.178 

X. Review, Essay, Classbook.181 

Criticism or Review.181 

Informal or-Familiar Essay .185 

Classbook.191 










































X 


CONTENTS 


Chapter Page 

XI. Precis, Reports, and Examinations.198 

What a Precis Is.198 

How to Prepare a Precis.199 

How to Read a Difficult Sentence.199 

How to Read a Paragraph Thoroughly.201 

Writing the Precis .201 

Secretary's Report.209 

Other Reports.210 

Examinations .211 

How to Take an Examination.212 

Analyzing Questions .214 

XII. Debating.222 

The Question.222 

Finding Material. 222 

Main Issues.223 

Introduction, Body of Argument, and Conclusion , . . 226 

What a Brief Is .227 

How to Construct a Brief.228 

Introduction.236 

Emphasis.239 

Delivery.241 

Debate Custom.242 

Rebuttal Method and Matter.243 

Fallacies.244 

How to Debate.257 

XIII. Publication.261 

Newspaper ..261 

Arrangement of a News Story.272 

Editorial.274 

Letters to the Editor.276 

School Newspaper . ..278 

News Story ..279 

Sports.282 

Interview.284 

Humor.286 

Editorial.289 

School Magazine.293 

Studying Magazines.293 

Class Paper.296 

Advertising.297 

Proof Reading.299 









































CONTENTS 


XI 


Chaptek Page 

XIV. Narration.303 

Kinds of Narratives.303 

Biography.304 

How to Tell an Experience.305 

Rapid Writing.311 

XV. Description.320 

Brevity and Accuracy.320 

Word Pictures and Snapshots or Paintings.320 

Sensation.320 

. Figures of Speech and Comparisons.321 

How to Picture.326 

Impressionistic Description .336 

The Five Senses.339 

XVI. Short Story.343 

Raw Materials.344 

Plot.346 

Character. 348 

Theme .349 

Setting.350 

Local Color and Atmosphere.357 

Point of View .363 

Opening.364 

Dialog.365 

Pictures and Contrast.366 

Compression and Movement.367 

XVII. Verse ..381 

Rhythm and Meter.381 

What to Write About.384 

Rhyme.393 

Stanzas.395 

Diction.402 

Pictures and Comparisons.403 

Free Verse. 408 

XVIII. Reading and Reciting.414 

Getting and Giving the Thought and Feeling.414 

Phrasing.417 

Emphasis.418 

Inflection.422 

Time. 424 

Pitch, Quality, Variety.425 










































xii CONTENTS 

Chapter Page 

The Eyes.426 

How to Prepare a Reading or a Recitation.427 

How to Memorize .428 

PART H. THE SENTENCE AND THE WORD 

XIX. The Pakts of the Sentence.433 

Case Uses.434 

Analysis and Syntax .437 

Complex Sentences.439 

Verbals.443 

XX. The Correct and Effective Sentence.446 

Half-Sentence and Comma Blunder.446 

Case of Pronouns.450 

Verb and Subject.451 

Pronoun and Antecedent .453 

Compound Personal Pronoun and Relative Pronoun . . 455 

Principal Parts of Verbs.458 

Sit, Set, Lie, Lay, Rise, Raise .458 

Subjunctive Mood.459 

Tense.459 

Shall, Will, Should, Would .462 

Adjectives and Adverbs.465 

Wrong Part of Speech.467 

Syntactical Redundance.^.468 

Omission .469 

XXI. Better Sentences.471 

Something Other than Adjectives before the Subject 471 

Complex Sentence .474 

Appositive. 476 

Series.477 

Participle.478 

Interrogative, Imperative, and Exclamatory Sentences 479 

Repetition.481 

Wordiness.482 

XXII. Punctuation and Capitalization.483 

Capitalization.483 

Punctuation.488 

XXIII. Spelling.505 

How to Learn to Spell.505 

Possessives.505 





































CONTENTS xiii 

Chapter Page 

Ei and ie .507 

Compounds.507 

Homonyms .509 

Final y .510 

Final e .510 

Doubling Final Consonants.511 

Misspelling Due to Mispronunciation.515 

XXIV. The Right Word.519 

Why Increase One’s Word Store.519 

Vocabulary Notebook.525 

The Dictionary.526 

Other Books about Words.527 

Changes in Meaning .528 

Effective Words.528 

Latin Prefixes.532 

Common Latin Verb Roots.533 

Other Sources of Words.535 

XXV. Enunciation and Pronunciation.537 

American Enunciation.537 

Classes of Sounds.539 

Vowels .539 

Two Classifications of Consonants .•. . . 540 

Consonant Errors (Review) .543 

Vowel Errors (Review) .546 

Pronunciation Practice and Matches.548 

XXVI. Figures of Speech.551 

What Is a Figure of Speech?.551 

Difference between a Metaphor and a Simile.552 

Other Figures.555 

Appendix.562 

Voice.562 

American Voice.562 

Voice Production.562 

Breath Support.563 

Vocal Freedom.563 

Voice Placing.564 

Resonance.564 

Tone Projection .564 

Parliamentary Practice.566 









































XIV 


CONTENTS 


Chapteb 


Page 

Temporary Organization.566 

Permanent Organization.567 

Choice of Officers.568 

Constitution and By-Laws ..569 

Rights and Duties of Members and Officers.570 

Rules of Debate.573 

Motions.574 


Index 


583 









LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


Page 

A Polo Match. Frontispiece 

Gossip. . 

The Telephone Reflects Your Personality as in a Mirror . . 16 

Screech Owls on a Fence.27 

The Kitchen of the Wayside Inn . ..89 

The Pyramids of Egypt Framed by Palm Trees.93 

Mount Hood and Lost Lake.105 

Canoe Tilting. 175 

Bill Banker, The Blond Blizzard.177 

Potato Race.196 

Beef at Seven Dollars a Pound.264 

A Cartoon.288 

A Mighty Ski Jump in the Bavarian Alps.310 

A Bucking Broncho.312 

Ride Him, Cowboy.312 

Old Bruton Church, Wilhamsburg, Virginia .322 

Marlowe and Sothern in ‘‘Twelfth Night’^.325 

A Swiss Peasant Home .332 

A Marken Street Scene.333 

Evening.335 

The Library, Columbia University.337 

Are the Suckers on the Bank or in the Stream?.340 

From the Saturday Evening Post .347 

From the Saturday Evening Post, “The Party Line’^ .... 363 

Scene in a Play.379 

A Mile of Winter in Canada.391 

The Army against Notre Dame. 448 

Gray Wolves.474 

Sailboat in a Stiff Breeze.480 


XV 


































ENGLISH IN ACTION 

Volume Two 

Pari I—Exercises in Speaking and Writing 







CHAPTER I 

CONVERSATION 

Talk and Conversation 

The average person talks in a week what would be, if printed, 
a volume of two hundred fifty pages. In fifty years this con¬ 
versation would make a library of two thousand six hundred 
volumes. And strange it is that in a day when people are so 
painstaking about dress and realize the vital relationship between 
appearance and business or professional success, many should be 
so careless about speech, which is ‘‘the dress of the mind.^^ 

Value of Conversation 

Conversation is valuable, first, because it is a form of mental 
transportation. The word conversation is derived from the Latin 
conversari, meaning to associate with or to live with. Because it 
is impossible for our associates to read our minds or X-ray our 
mental operations, it is important for us to be able to explain 
ourselves, to show others what we think and why we think as we 
do if we are to “get on^^ with people. Palmer in his essay “SeK- 
Cultivation in English^^ says, “He who can explain himself may 
command what he wants.’’ Undoubtedly much of the quarreling, 
bickering, strife, and confusion in the world is due to people’s 
inability or unwillingness to express themselves sincerely, clearly, 
accurately, and fully. Moreover most ideas are either expressed 
in words or are valueless because unexpressed. The painter, the 
sculptor, the musician, the architect, and the inventor can express 
their ideas in pictures, statuary, music, plans, and devices. Most 
people, however, who wish to transport their ideas or feelings to 
others employ speech or writing. In the intellectual world con¬ 
versation and writing are as important as railroads, steamship 
lines, and motor trucks in the world of commerce. 

Conversation is also a form of mental growth. Expression is 
an integral part of the learning process. One of the best means 

3 


4 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


of learning is by teaching. As exercise strengthens muscles and 
improves skill, so talking about a subject both clarifies one’s 
ideas and fixes the facts more firmly in memory. Wise is the 
learner who, wishing to retain the vital facts in a book, a play, 
or a magazine article, finds an opportunity to impart these ideas 
to his family or friends. Today you have read a story worth 
remembering; tomorrow tell it to your brother or friend. Last 
week you heard a lecture on butterflies, snakes, or the Antarctic; 
this week introduce the subject in conversation. 
y Good speech has social value. A young woman may adorn ' 
herself with five hundred dollars’ worth of fine raiment; but if, 
when she opens her mouth, ^‘Jawagootim?” “Ain’t that just 
fierce?” “Djeet yer lunch yit?” or “Ancha hungry?” bursts forth, y 
she is socially undone. —/ 

\ When president of Harvard, Dr. Eliot said, “I recognize but 
one mental acquisition as an essential part of the education of a 
lady or gentleman; namely, an accurate and refined use of the 
mother-tongue. As a person is judged by the company he keeps, 
so is he judged by the English he speaks.” 

Conversation is the best English training ground, because the 
average person talks approximately one hundred times as much 
as he writes and speaks in public, and his conversation habits 
carry over into his writing and pubhc speaking. Hence conver¬ 
sation has about a hundred times as much influence on one’s 
habitual use of English as have writing and public speaking com¬ 
bined. “Learn to write by speaking,” is a sound slogan. 

Some pupils think that they can talk ungrammatical, care¬ 
lessly articulated dialect at home, in the lunch room, and on the 
baseball field, and speak good English when talking to a teacher 
or applying for a job. As a result, they never learn to speak 
English like educated Americans. Samuel Johnson said that 
he acquired the habit of imparting whatever he knew in the 
most forcible language, because he early laid down the rule -to 
do his best on every occasion and in every company and never 
to permit any careless expression to escape him. Good Enghsh 
is like good manners—a habit. Get the habit. 


CONVERSATION 


5 


Pkactice 1 

Get ready to converse on these subjects. In class conversation 
turn about in your seat, if necessary, to face the majority of the 
class, and speak so distinctly that the pupil farthest from you 
will easily understand every word. 

1. Why is it wise to use in conversation ideas gained from books and 
magazines? 

2. In filling important positions, why do business and professional 
men take the time to interview applicants whose letters are evidence 
that they are qualified for the work? 

3. Explain the statement, ‘Conversational ability boosts the mercury 
in the thermometer of personality.” 

4. Explain the Chinese saying, “A man’s conversation is the mirror 
of his thoughts.” 

5. How does conversation help one to acquire tolerance? 

6. How does ability to converse well help one to form the right friend¬ 
ships in college and in business? 

7. De Quincey says, “The readiest method of illuminating obscure con¬ 
ceptions, or maturing such as are crude, lies in an earnest effort to make 
them apprehensible by others.” Explain and illustrate his statement. 

8. Speech has been called man’s most useful instrument “for estab¬ 
lishing and maintaining satisfactory and happy relations” among people. 
Do you believe this statement? Why? 

9. In New York City more than 800,000 business letters are mailed 
every day. How does this statement prove that a business man should 
be able to express his ideas tersely and pointedly? 

10. Shakespeare says, “Mend thy speech a little lest it mar thy for¬ 
tune.” Illustrate the fact that good speech has a dollar-and-cent value. 

11. Bacon says, “Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; 
and writing an exact man.” Are the statements true? What makes 
you think so? 

12. Which is most valuable, ability in conversation, in speaking to 
an audience, or in essay writing? Why? 

13. How does a person’s conversation affect his public speaking and 
his writing? 

14. Many people consider conversation a lost art. If so, is the art 
worth reviving? Why? 

Voice and Enunciation 

It is quite as important to speak thoughtfully, carefully, and 
properly at home as it is to speak well in public. Slovenly and 


6 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


indistinct speech is always inconsiderate and ineffective. Some 
people talk at all times as if they were in a boiler factory; others, 
while riding on a trolley or subway train, talk as if they were 
in a sick room. The happy medium under normal conditions 
is neither a shout nor a whisper but speech loud and distinct 
enough to be easily understood. 

The Good Listener 

A pleasing conversationalist, unlike a monologist, is a good 
listener. Some people imagine that the words which fall from 
their lips are golden but that what others say is of httle account. 
Conversation is not a lecture or a sohloquy but a give and take. 
Cowper says, ^‘We should try to keep conversation like a ball 
bandied to and fro from one to another, rather than seize it all 
to ourselves, and drive it before us Hke a football.^^ 

The good listener gains worth-while information every day. 
Only a prig thinks himself too wise to learn from uneducated 
people. The blacksmith, the farmer, the miller, the plumber, the 
carpenter, and the electrician practice arts about which the 
average person knows httle or nothing. Roosevelt once said, ‘Tt 
tires me to talk to rich men. You expect a man of milhons, the 
head of a great industry, to be a man worth hearing; but, as a 
rule, they don’t know anything outside of their own businesses.” 
He preferred to talk with a ranchman, boxer, guide, cowboy, 
actor, pohce reporter, or wolf-killer who had studied Hfe in his 
own way and had experience and ideas worth hearing. 

A bore has been humorously described as “one who talks about 
himself when you want to talk about yourself.” The ordinary 
vJbpre is a person “who talks incessantly without ever letting a 
word from another’s lips get into his ears.” Without listening 
sharply enough to discover whether anybody is interested in 
what he has to say, he gaily assumes that all are highly enter¬ 
tained by every word that falls from his lips. The person, on the 
other hand, who seems glad to see you, who Hstens attentively to 
what you say, whose face, questions, comments, and manner show 


CONVERSATION 7 

keen interest in your news, story, or ideas is considered a charm¬ 
ing conversationalist. 

Practice 2 

Be ready to talk in class on these subjects: 

1. Two reasons for listening are: (1) attentive listening is flattering 
to the speaker; (2) careful listening enables one to reply pointedly to 
what is said. Give two other reasons. 

2. What does the statement, Learn to be interested in what others 
say, as well as to seem so,” mean? 

3. Why do some people ask for a repetition of what has been said 
distinctly? What effect does this habit have on conversation? 

4. What is the effect on conversation of a harsh, shrill voice? 

5. Why should we watch the reaction of our listeners to our conver¬ 
sation? 


Something to Say 

Almost as bad as the person who talks everybody 'Meaf, dumb, 
and bhnd” is the tongueless or tongue-tied person who sits like a 
statue without saying a word except ‘^Yes,” ^‘No,” think so,” 
and don^t know.” Have you ever entertained a caller who 
pohtely answered ^^Yes” or ^^No” to questions about his brother 
in South America, a new book, the Airedale pup, the basketball 
game, and the garden, and then relapsed into a pohte silence? 
How you rejoiced when he said good-by! 

Good hstening alone doesnT make a pleasing conversationalist; 
one must have something to say, must carry his share of the con¬ 
versational burden. An occasional lull in conversation is natural 
and restful, but repeated lengthy silences indicate barrenness of 
ideas or unsociabihty. The person who has nothing to say is 
considered sick, dull, shy, or unsociable. 

One who in conversation hasnT anything to contribute should 
read newspapers, magazines, and books; study thoroughly a few 
worth-while books; talk with thoughtful people; learn to play 
games and to do various kinds of useful work; enjoy the best 
plays, concerts, operas, radio programs, and moving pictures; 
learn a few anecdotes; and keep his eyes and ears open for laugh- 


8 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


able happenings. He should do, read, think, and see. An apt 
anecdote or a well-told experience is always entertaining. But 
the bore who tells stale or pointless jokes, or tells again and again 
the same experience or anecdote is shunned. 

Practice 3 

Prepare to say something entertaining, informing, or convinc¬ 
ing on the following topics: 

1. What is the difference between chatter and conversation? 

2. Explain, “It is not so much a question of what a man knows, as 
what use he can make of such knowledge. 

3. Which college do you prefer? What advantages has it over other 
colleges for the kind of work you are interested in? 

4. It is dishonest to say you have read a book which you have not 
read. And it is stupid, too. Why? 

5. What does our community need most? 

6. What kinds of law-breaking is it the duty of a citizen to prevent 
or report: burglary, spitting on the floor, speeding, cruelty to animals? 
Why? 

7. What books that you have read do you recommend to pupils look¬ 
ing for “good books for supplementary reading”? Why are they worth 
reading? 

8. What good magazine article have you read within a month? Wliat 
important facts or ideas does it contain? 

9. What was the most important news of the past week? 

Topics for Conversation 

When asked his favorite topic of conversation, Matthew Arnold 
said, “That in which my companion is most interested.” When 
you talk with a stranger, it is well first to go fishing for a topic, 
to try one bait after another. If the stranger’s face brightens at 
the mention of baseball, the theater, the coming election, Alpine 
scenery, or automobiles, you have probably hit upon a subject 
that he will enjoy talking about. The common interest may be 
acquaintances, school, business, books, places of residence, or 
news of the day. Topics for conversation extend all the way from 
the effects of carrots on the complexion or the habits of the 
hippopotamus to the fourth dimension or the theory of relativity. 


CONVERSATION 


9 


Unfortunately the conversational range of most people is ex¬ 
tremely limited. When a group of people start talking about the 
weather, a subject about which all have exactly the same informa¬ 
tion, there is no opportunity for real conversation, an interchange 
of ideas. Family news and business, or ‘^shop,’’ are more profit¬ 
able topics but may exclude some of the group who don’t know 
the family or business. “Talking shop” is permissible only if all 
in the group are interested in the work, business, or profession 
under discussion. 


Practice 4 

1. Is the weather a good topic for conversation? Why? Is it a good 
topic to pass the time of day with? Why? 

2. How does egoism affect one’s conversation? How does unselfish¬ 
ness affect it? Why should we in conversation consider the interests of 
others? 

3. Why are operations and ills not good drawing-room topics? 

4. How do you decide on topics for conversation? Which of the 
following topics do you like best? 

Happenings to oneself, happenings to others, criticism of a lecture or 
play, school, work, the welfare of the community, friends, anecdotes, 
current events, gossip, parties, books, stories, magazines, moving pic¬ 
tures, travel, vacation, games, gardens, athletics, politics, animals, 
thoughts, automobiles, picnics, new clothes, weather, things to eat, 
religion, business. 

What other topics for conversation are there? 

Language of Conversation 

The language of conversation should be clear, correct, concise, 
pointed, but should also be daring, original, striking, individual, 
picturesque, vigorous. Terseness requires the elimination of 
every unnecessary and, well, and so, of useless introductory ex¬ 
pressions like “That reminds me of a story,” and “Speaking of 
submarines, have you read—,” and of roundabout, complicated, 
vague, confusing explanations. 

In Claire Ambler, Booth Tarkington illustrates admirably 
sophomoric earnestness coupled with verbal penury, boresome 
repetition, and absence of thinking. 


10 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


“You cert’n’y gave us all a good time,” he said seriously. “I couldn’t 
begin to tell you the kick I got out of it myself.” 

“How?” she asked. 

“Well, I don’t know; but anyhow I did. It’s kind of like something 
new coming into our lives here, or something like that, I mean the way 
you talk; or what I mean, I mean the way you say things. You got a 
way of saying things that’s kind of got a kick in it. Anyhow, for me it 
has, I mean. I mean it. Honest, I really do mean it. I mean there’s 
lots of kick in what you say.” 

“How do you mean?” she asked. 

“Well,” he said, “I mean there is. I don’t mean it’s only in the way 
you say what you say; there’s more to it than that. F’r instance, when 
you say something you say it in a way that’s got a kick in it; but I mean 
what you got to say’s got a kick in it, too. You see what I mean?”^ 

Good Manners 

Dean Swift defined manners as the art of putting at ease the 
people with whom we converse. Good manners require the avoid¬ 
ing of a topic that might make somebody in the group unhappy, 
unless there is a good reason for telling plain, unpleasant truths. 
To parade one’s wealth, learning, or travel, or discuss clothes, 
automobiles, or servants for the purpose of making somebody 
jealous or uncomfortable is not an evidence of culture or refine¬ 
ment. 

The courteous talker does not meet argument with abuse or 
shout his opinions. In expressing his convictions he does not 
try to force his hearers to agree with him. On the contrary, he 
is interested in what others think and is ready to change his 
opinion when convinced of error. A person afflicted with seK- 
conceit, whether old or young, is impatient of the opinions and 
reasons of others and hence is not able to influence others. 

Expressions like “You’re all wrong,” “Bosh and nonsense!” 
and “You don’t know what you are talking about” arouse antag¬ 
onism, because they show that the cocksure speaker thinks him¬ 
self infinitely wiser than his associates. “What you say is true, 
but haven’t you overlooked this fact?” “My experience has been 
somewhat different from yours,” “I look at this subject from a 

iFrom Claire Ambler by Booth Tarkington, copyright 1928 by Doubleday, 
Doran, and Company, Inc. 


CONVERSATION 


11 








12 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


slightly different angle from you/’ and similar expressions show 
respect for the ideas and convictions of others. 

Moreover the talker who has good manners looks in the eye 
the person with whom he is talking, does not change the subject 
abruptly if the group are interested in the topic under discussion, 
and avoids unnecessary interruptions. Pointless interruptions 
show the speaker that his companion is not interested. He takes 
the hint and stops talking. 


Practice 5 

Select a student chairman and prepare to discuss the latest number 
of the Literary Digest, Review of Reviews, WorWs Work, Time, Scholastic, 
Atlantic Monthly, or another magazine. The chairman by question or 
statement begins the discussion and changes the topic when advisable. 

Truthfulness and Kindness 

Cheap vulgarity, cattish gossip, slanderous rumor, damaging 
hearsay, l 5 dng, innuendo, assigning low motives, violating con¬ 
fidences, and carping faultfinding may at times be popular but 
will gradually shrivel a person up until he becomes mean, 
small, ungenerous, disloyal, contemptible. Sincerity, fairness, 
frankness, truthfulness, and kindness mean growth and friends. 
In conversation be a thoroughbred, a good sportsman, a helper. 
Quintilian says, ‘^The heart is that which makes a man eloquent.” 

Compliment 

Both children and grown-ups like to be complimented when 
the comphments are sensible and sincere. In general, praise is 
more effective than blame, but a silly or extravagant compliment 
amuses or disgusts an intelfigent person. We care for the judg¬ 
ment of those who know what they are talking about. A person 
who says, ‘T think your green dress is a beauty” about a blue 
dress; or “Isn’t that wonderful poetry?” about a bit of doggerel, 
is unconsciously humorous. Insincerity shows itself in the words, 
voice, or manner. The voice and manner may show that “I 
have had such a good time this evening’' means exactly what 


CONVERSATION 


13 


the words say, or means nothing. The insincere compliment is 
often studied, formal, elaborate, extravagant; the genuine one is 
simple and direct: ^‘That’s an entertaining story;’’ “Your speech 
was the best of the evening because you had something to say;” 
“The whole family laughed at your humorous account of the 
circus.” 

Contradiction 

There is nothing to be gained by clashing of opinions and need¬ 
less contradiction. A good talker avoids an air of authority or 
finality in presenting his opinions. Even when fairness requires 
the correction of a misstatement or an inaccuracy, he avoids 
wounding the feelings of the one who made the mistake. People 
are sensitive about their blunders and faults. As an intellectual 
exercise argument has few equals, and most people take keen 
delight in a good-natured, spirited debate or intellectual match, 
where thrust and jibe, merry witticism and quick retort fly back 
and forth hke rapiers in a fencing match. Avoid, however, the 
habit in serious conversation of taking the opposite side of every 
question and wasting words in argument. Cardinal Newman 
says, “The true gentleman in like manner carefully avoids what¬ 
ever may cause a jar or a jolt in the mind of those with whom 
he is cast—all clashing of opinion or collision of feeling, all re¬ 
straint or suspicion of gloom or resentment, his great concern 
being to make every one at ease and at home.” 

Talking Business 

John M. Clapp says, “Successful trading depends mainly upon 
telling the other man what you have and why he should have it, 
and arranging with carriers so that he may get it quickly to his 
hands. Ail this requires the effective use of language, clear, 
direct, and accurate.” In his Talking Business he says that a 
business man should speak frankly without hesitation, hedging, 
or truckling; travel directly toward his point; lead others back to 
the road when they ramble away from it; take time to explain 
clearly and answer questions; and give others a chance to talk. 


14 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Telephone Conversation 

The New York City Telephone Directory gives these suggestions 
about making a local call from a manual telephone: 


Give the number to the operator in the following manner: 

CAN al 0027 say ‘‘Canal oh-oh—two-seven.” 

JOH n 1253 say “John one-two—five-three.” 

MAI n 2125-J say “Main two-one—two-five J.” 

HAN over 4800 say “Hanover four-eight—hundred.” 

WOR th 5000 say “Worth five-thousand.” 

If you should hear the operator pass your call to another oper¬ 
ator incorrectly, say “No” and give the number again. 

If you are calling from a party line message rate station, an¬ 
nounce the letter of your station, if there is one, after giving the 
number as above. Example, “Worth five-thousand. This is ‘J’ 
calling.” 

To Call Back the Operator 

When it is necessary to call back the operator, move the re¬ 
ceiver hook up and down slowly three or four times. 

Moving the receiver hook causes a light to flash on the opera¬ 
tor’s switchboard. If you “jiggle” the hook rapidly, the light 
will not burn long enough to attract the operator’s attention. 

The Indianapolis City Telephone Directory gives these sug¬ 
gestions about making a local call from a dial telephone: 

How to Use the Dial Telephone 

Obtain the Correct Telephone Number from the directory, in¬ 
cluding the first two letters of the office name which are shown in 
Capitals. If the person or firm you want is not listed in the di¬ 
rectory, dial 411 and ask the “Information” operator who answers 
to furnish you the number. 

Remove the Receiver Carefully. Do not “jiggle” the receiver 
hook after you remove the receiver, as it may cause you to get a 
wrong number or to be cut off. 

Listen for the Dial Tone, a steady humming sound, which in¬ 
dicates that the line is ready to receive a call. 


CONVERSATION 


15 


Upon Hearing the Dial Tone and with the Receiver 
Off the Hook, Dial the First Two Letters of the Office 
Name shown in capitals in the directory and Each Figure 
OF THE Number as listed. 

For example, to call LI ncoln 3407, remove the receiver, listen 
for the Dial Tone and: 

1. Place your finger firmly down into the opening in the dial 
through which the letter “L” is seen. 

2. Turn the dial around to the right until your finger strikes the 
finger stop. 

3. Remove your finger from the opening and without touching 
the dial let it return to rest. 

4. Proceed in the same way with the letter “V’ and then the fig¬ 
ures 3-4-0-7 in the order in which they appear in the number. 

Wait for the Ringing or Busy Signal. Either the ringing or 
busy signal should be heard on the line within a few seconds to 
half a minute. If, after you have waited about half a minute, you 
have not heard either the ringing or busy signal, hang up the re¬ 
ceiver for a few seconds and dial again. 

The Ringing Signal is a ^'burring” sound heard at intervals. If, 
after hearing the signal repeated for about one minute, you ob¬ 
tain no answer, hang up the receiver and call again when you 
expect to obtain an answer. 

The Busy Signal is a steady “buzz-buzz-buzz” sound. When 
you hear this signal, hang up the receiver and call again a little 
later. 

The “Dialed in Error” Signal is an interrupted series of “buzz 
buzz—buzz buzz—buzz buzz” sounds. When this signal is heard, 
hang up the receiver and verify the number you are calling with the 
telephone directory. After this has been done, remove the receiver, 
and, upon hearing the dial tone, dial the complete number again. 

When the connection has been made, the conversation begins 
as follows: 

The Right Way 

John Roberts of the Roberts Numbering Machine Company has called 
John Hoffman of the Hoffman and Banta Garage. 

Mr. Hoffman {taking down the receiver when his telephone hell rings): 
Hoffman and Banta Garage, Mr. Hoffman speaking. 

Mr. Roberts: This is the Roberts Numbering Machine Company, 
Mr. Roberts at the telephone. What are your rates for storage of a 
Buick sedan? 


16 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


The Time-Wasting Way 

Mr. Hoffman: Hello. 

Mr. Roberts: Who are you? 

Mr. Hoffman: Who do you want? 

Mr. Roberts: Is this the Hoffman and Banta Garage? 
Mr. Hoffman: Yes. 

Mr. Roberts: I want to talk with Mr. Hoffman. 

Mr. Hoffman: This is Mr. Hoffman. 

Mr. Roberts: Mr. John Hoffman? 

Mr. Hoffman: Yes. 

Mr. Roberts: This is Roberts talking. 

Mr. Hoffman: Who? 



The Telephone Reflects Your Personality as in a Mirror 


Mr. Roberts: John Roberts of the Roberts Numbering Machine 
Company. 

Mr. Hoffman: Oh, yes, Mr. Roberts. 

Other points to keep in mind in telephone conversation are: 

1. Speak directly into the mouthpiece, with your mouth not more 
than an inch away. If you are asked to repeat what you have said, get 
closer to the mouthpiece, use a full, natural voice, and articulate dis¬ 
tinctly. 

2. Speak distinctly and deliberately, so that the listener may con¬ 
centrate upon your message and repetition of words and sentences will 
be unnecessary. 

3. Don’t shout. 

4. Don’t tell secrets. 















CONVERSATION 


17 


5. Be just as courteous with Central and the person at the other end 
of the wire as you are in face-to-face conversation. It is easy to quarrel 
over the telephone because the people talking do not see each other. 

6. Answer the telephone promptly. Delay means added labor for 
Central and wasted time for the person calling. When somebody wishes 
to enter your home or place of business through the telephone door, do 
not keep him waiting. 

7. At the end of the conversation say “Good-by” and hang up the 
receiver quickly—don’t bang it on the hook. 

8. Don’t carry on a long conversation unless the business is important. 

9. Have a pad and pencil at hand for notes. 

10. Talk naturally. Don’t put on an artificial manner for telephone 
conversation. See in imagination the person with whom you are talking 
and note his changes of facial expression. 

11. If you answer for another person, offer to take the message, and 
deliver it at the first opportunity. 

Pkactice 6 

Substitute if you wish a girl’s name for a boy’s, a woman’s 
for a man’s, or vice versa. 

1. Let one pupil represent the employment agent of John Wana- 
maker and another a boy or girl who has come in response to the adver¬ 
tisement: Wanted—bright, energetic, trustworthy, accurate high-school 
graduates as salesmen. Capable and reliable boys and girls advance 
rapidly. Many buyers and department heads earn more than $5,000 a 
year. 

2. Dr. Herring is the registrar of Columbia University, and Mr. 
Johnson inquires about admission, expenses, opportunities to earn money, 
and courses. Perhaps Mr. Johnson doesn’t understand what is meant 
in the catalog by general tests for admission. 

3. Dramatize a sale at the book, necktie, or hat counter, or in the 
boys’ or girls’ suit department. 

4. Reproduce and discuss a conversation you have heard. 

5. Let two or more pupils read a conversation from a short story or 
novel. Discuss the conversational ability of the characters. 

6. Mrs. Halloran wishes to “look at” a vacuum cleaner, bookcase, 
electric washing machine, dishwasher, electric stove, gas stove, radio, 
fireless cooker, or kitchen cabinet. Mr. Simpson explains the merits of 
the article and tries to make a sale. 

7. Mr. Miller is an agent for a new book, a recent invention, a house¬ 
hold article, life insurance, or stock in a corporation that is being organ¬ 
ized. He finds Mr. Travis busy and must present his case briefly and 
attractively. 


18 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


8. May Randolph tries to persuade Dorothy Glass to vote for Hadley 
Smith for president of the student organization or athletic association. 

9. Jack Paton and Wade Howard talk over the recent game, debate, 
speaking contest, or play. 

10. Bernard Preuss tries to secure from a grocer, druggist, jeweler, 
coal dealer, or music teacher an advertisement for the school paper. 

11. Elsie Price asks the principal’s permission to hold a school enter¬ 
tainment or party or to organize a club. 

12. Mr. Stranger asks Mr. Helpful the way to city hall or to a hotel, 
store, theater, monument, bank, railroad station, moving-picture theater, 
library, church, or another town or city. Mr. Helpful replies correctly, 
completely, clearly, and courteously. 

Peactice 7 

The leader will start the game, but you must be ready to catch 
the ball when it comes to you and pass it along. In speaking of 
dehghtful conversation, John Galsworthy says, ‘‘Down there the 
conversation was like Association football—no one kept the ball 
for more than one kick. It shot from head to head.’’ 

1. Should one laugh at his own jokes? Why? 

2. How do you form a first impression of a person? 

3. Why did you like or dislike the last book you read? 

4. Samuel Johnson says: “A man should be careful never to tell 
tales of himself to his own disadvantage. People may be amused and 
laugh at the time, but they will be remembered and brought out against 
hi m upon some subsequent occasion.” Is this a good conversation rule? 
Why? 

5. Professor Lounsbury of Yale University says: “Profanity is a brain 
test. To a very great extent the practice of swearing is specially charac¬ 
teristic of a rude and imperfect civilization. It is safe to say in general 
that a man’s intellectual development is largely determined by the extent 
of his indulgence in profanity.” Professor Lounsbury adds that excep¬ 
tions are the result of early training or association. Are ignorant people 
more profane than intelligent? Why? What relation exists between 
profanity and size of vocabulary? 

6. One authority estimates that the average man is only twenty-five 
per cent efiicient. What does the statement mean? Does it apply to 
high-school pupils? How? 

7. Samuel Johnson says: “Questioning is not the mode of conversa- 
. tion among gentlemen. It is particularly wrong to question a man 

concerning himself.” Do you agree with Johnson? Why? 


CONVERSATION 19 

8. Good conversation is sincere, honest, fluent, —. Supply as many 
appropriate adjectives as you can. 

9. Poor conversation may be loud, profane, sarcastic, —. Supply 
adjectives. 

10. Dr. Bryan, president of Indiana University, says: “Write down 
for yourself whatever it is that you have done with a success which satis¬ 
fies yourself. If your one success was only winning at checkers against 
a champion, that is better than nothing at all. That tells you the first 
syllable of the rule for winning at greater games. That makes you con¬ 
sider whether there is a game for you that is greater than the one you have 
succeeded in. Stop a minute and see what you amount to up to this date. 
‘Know thyself,’ says Socrates.” 

11. Dr. Hibben, president of Princeton University, said: “The war 
has shown us that men are capable of more work than was ever dreamed 
of. There should be no slacking of education. The public will not stand 
for young men in college without a serious purpose, and I wish to state 
right now that Princeton University will not stand for it.” What boys 
and girls should be permitted to enter college and remain in college? 
What about high school? 

12. Discuss conversationalists you know. Perhaps you know a bore 
who is always riding his hobby, a mother who talks to her children as if 
they were deaf, a woman who is in a great hurry but talks on, a man 
who talks about everything except the topic under discussion, a mumbler 
whom few can understand, a boy or girl who overworks a pet expression, 
a drawling, sleepy talker, or a stimulating, entertaining conversationalist. 
Picture to the class vividly and accurately the person chosen. 

13. The caller who says to a sick person, “How thin and pale you 
look! Are you worse today?” is called a tactless blunderer. Give other 
examples of lack of tact in conversation. 

14. Why are such replies as “No, I hate the theater,” “I’m not the 
least bit interested in politics,” “I’m too busy to waste my time listening 
to music,” “No, I don’t care anything about athletics” called “door 

slammers”? . • „ 

15. Which is the better slogan, “In conversation never give ottense, 
or “In conversation never give offense unnecessarily”? Why? 

Practice 8 

By reading a chapter of Mary G. Conklin’s Conversation: What to Say 
and How to Say It, Alice Evelyn Craig’s The Speech Arts, Florence Hall’s 
A-B-C of Correct Speech, Robert Waters’s Culture hy Conversation, or 
another book, prepare to give the class some suggestions about conver¬ 
sation. 



% 




I 




CHAPTER II 

SPEAKING AND READING 


Why Learn to Speak? 

When you want to send a package or a box to San Francisco 
or Boston, you call up the express company, take it to the post 
office, or send it to the freight station. When you wish to trans¬ 
port an idea to the mind of another, you sometimes write a letter 
or a telegram or draw a picture, but ordinarily you tell it to him. 
Hence speech and writing in the world of ideas are as important 
as railroads, steamship hnes, and trucks in the world of commerce. 

When a young man, Chauncey Depew was ambitious to be¬ 
come a leader in politics and industry. Knowing the value of the 
abihty to speak clearly, forcefully, and entertainingly, he accepted 
gladly every invitation to address an audience and prepared 
his speeches thoroughly. While other young men were wasting 
their evenings in a variety of ways, he was gathering facts, 
incidents, anecdotes, ideas, and bits of humor for use in his 
speeches. By study and practice he became one of America’s 
cleverest, wittiest, and most entertaining speakers. His ability 
as a speaker helped him to become both president of the New 
York Central Railroad and a member of the United States Senate. 

Leaders are commonly forceful speakers. Look about you in 
school and out of school, and notice whether the leaders you 
know are good speakers. 

In business and the professions the ability to speak is valuable. 
The lawyer must persuade the jurors to vote for an acquittal 
or a conviction. The teacher needs to know how to explain 
clearly what the pupils don’t understand. A salesman must 
make clear the merits of his goods. The actor’s success depends 
upon his ability to speak and act. A doctor explains symptoms 
and treatment to patients and nurses. A secretary needs a pleas- 

21 


22 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


ant voice and correct English. An engineer needs to be able 
not only to draw up plans but also to convince boards of directors 
or town or city councils that they are better than other plans 
presented. 

Practice 1 

1. Is ability to speak valuable to a farmer? An architect? A banker? 
A carpenter? A dentist? An insurance agent? A musician? A pharmacist? 
A minister, a rabbi, or a priest? A politician or a statesman? Why? 

2. Show that a good speaker may be a more useful citizen than a person 
who can't express his ideas correctly, clearly, and forcefully. 

Reciting 

Because speech is a habit, no one can improve your speech 
for you. If, for example, you say havin’, for having, your teacher 
can show you how to pronounce the word, but you must break 
the bad habit and form the right habit by (1) really wanting 
to form the right habit, (2) practicing having again and again, 
(3) never saying havin’. 

Your best chance to practice good speech is in ordinary con¬ 
versation. Likewise every time you are called on in class you 
have an excellent opportunity to form good speech habits. Listen 
to your classmates, and notice how many of them stand up and 
answer their questions completely, pointedly, and distinctly in 
sentences, and how many mumble part answers. Then listen 
to yourself, and form the habits of speaking every word distinctly 
enough to be heard by every one in the room, of cutting your 
words apart, and of matching your answer to the question. If 
the teacher has to retell to the class what you say — broadcast 
for you — resolve to learn to speak distinctly, and practice. 

Eyes 

The first step in learning to speak in public is to look at your 
classmates and to talk directly to them instead of reciting some¬ 
thing mechanically to the floor, the ceihng, a window, or the clock. 
As you turn to talk to different parts of the class, move your 
shoulders, not just your head. DonT neglect the pupils in the 
rear seats. 


SPEAKING AND READING 


23 


Practice 2 

While talking on one of these topics, be interested in your 
story and your hearers. Look right at your classmates. 

1. What I like to read. 2. My hobby. 3. Why I should like to be a 
doctor (or something else). 4. My experience as a worker in a store, a bank, 
an office, a printing shop, or a factory. 5. My favorite game. 6. My Boy 
Scout work. 7. My Girl Scout work. 8. How I trained my dog. 9. A “close 
shave”! 10. What I saw and heard at the game. 11. How I study English 
(or another subject). 12. Caught in a storm. 13. Alone in the house at 
night. 14. My home duties. 15. My outside interests. 16. What I saw in 
the woods. 17. The funniest sight I ever saw. 18. A dangerous moment in 
the auto. 19. My adventure. 20. My neighbors. 21. Caught in the act. 
22. The play that won the game. 23. My favorite pictures. 24. The kind of 
movie I Hke. 25. Such a dinner! 26. A pet. 27. I forgot. 

Posture 

one pupil reminded himself of four points about 

March straight up to the teacher’s desk; 

Stand firmly on both feet; 

Look bravely at your fellow-men; 

Hands off that dear front seat. 

Get into the habit of standing still in an easy, erect posture 
with the chest up and the chin at right angles to the throat. 
Stand easily, not stiffly, but don’t slouch. Don’t wriggle, play 
with your watch chain or bracelet, or indulge in other purpose¬ 
less movements which advertise and increase nervousness. Ex¬ 
cept when you use your hands for gesture, let them hang loosely 
at the sides. 

Practice 3 

In a magazine or a newspaper read a fairly long article — 
at least five hundred words. Practice reproducing it clearly 
and accurately in not more than a minute and a hah. When you 
are called on, stand well and face the class. 

Enunciation and Pronunciation 

A good speaker makes it easy for all to hear everything he says. 
To enable the pupil farthest from you to hear easily, fill your 


In a stanza 
posture: 


24 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


lungs with air, open your mouth, move your Hps, enunciate 
distinctly all sounds, especially the endings of words, cut the 
words apart, and speak slowly. A mistake in pronunciation 
shows carelessness or ignorance, or both. 

Practice 4 

While preparing for a speech on airships, practice standing 
well, talking to your audience (if you can persuade your family or 
one of your friends to listen to you), and speaking distinctly. 

1. Why an airplane flies. 2. Why a glider flies. 3. How to construct a 
model airplane or glider. 4. History of the airplane. 5. Orville Wright. 
6. Colonel Lindbergh. 7. Commander Byrd. 8. Another famous aviator. 
9. A famous flight. 10. Types of airplanes. 11. How a dirigible is built. 
12. A famous dirigible. 13. Recent accomplishments in aviation. 14. Future 
possibilities of airships. 15. My ride in an airship. 16. Airships in war. 
17. Airships in exploration. 


Earnestness 

If a speaker is not keenly interested in his subject, he can’t 
expect to hold the active attention of his hearers. If, however, 
he knows his subject and is enthusiastic about it, is earnest 
in his manner and eager to communicate his ideas to his audience, 
his hearers will be glad to Hsten to him. 


Practice 5 

This time as you practice you need to keep in mind posture, 
eyes, enunciation and pronunciation, and earnestness or enthu¬ 
siasm. When called on, give the class some worthwhile ideas on 
one of these health subjects. 

1. Benefits of exercise. 2. How to prevent colds. 3. A sensible school 
lunch. 4. The effects of alcohol. 5. How milk is protected. 6. Prevention 
of disease. 7. How to avoid injury on the street. 8. First aid — drowning, 
fits, dog bite, nose bleed, insect bite or sting, foreign body in eye or ear, tooth¬ 
ache, bleeding from cut, body lodged in throat, burn, snake bite, faint, bruise, 
or poisoning. 9. Spitting in public. 10. Sanitary conditions in our town (or 
school). 11. Care of hair. 12. Care of nails. 13. Why one should eat slowly. 
14. Care of feet. 15. Fresh air. 16. Clothes. 17. Food — variety, bulk* 
quantity, meat and eggs. 18. Why eat slowly? 19. Why be cheerful and 


SPEAKING AND READING 


25 


learn not to worry? 20. Why avoid drugs? 21. Why stand, sit, and walk 
erect? 22. Milk as a food. 23. How to cook cereals, fruits, meats, vegetables. 

24. Are fresh air and outdoor exercise the best medicine for nervousness? 

25. Ventilation in our high school. 26. Vacation suggestions — open air, 
food, sleep, mosquitoes, flies, drinking water. 27. How to prevent or destroy 
flies. 28. How to keep food clean and sweet. 29. Tobacco. 30. How to 
prevent tuberculosis. 31. Bathing. 32. How the body gets and resists 
disease. 33. How germs may be destroyed. 34. Why the mosquito and fly are 
dangerous. 

35. Three health hints of the Life Extension Institute are: (a) Open-work 
stockings and thin-soled shoes worn by women are cordial invitations to colds 
and grippe; (6) Fresh air in the bedroom is all-important, but beware of 
bare feet on a cold floor; (c) Eat some crusty or resistant food, some bulky, 
and some raw food at each meal. Add to this list. 36. Two rules for the care 
of the eyes are; (a) Hold the book about fourteen inches from your face; 
(6) Don’t rub your eyes with your hands or a dirty handkerchief or cloth. 
Add to this list. 


Something to Say 

Of course, a speaker should say something to somebody. 

Silence is golden’^ suggests that many speakers who have few 
ideas or facts pour forth torrents of words. 

To find something to say on a subject like ^^The Woodpecker’^ 
recall woodpeckers you have seen, and observe a woodpecker if 
you can. Then think what you would hke to learn about this 
bird; for example, its appearance, habits, food, nest and eggs, 
young birds, and note or song; and ask a bird lover you know. If 
your acquaintances can’t answer your questions, look for bird 
books in your home library, the school library, and the city library. 
Delightful pamphlets and books about birds may be secured from 
the National Association of Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, 
New York City. 

Example: 

THE SCREECH OWL 

There are eight or nine different kinds of owls in New York State, 
but the screech owl is the only one that is at all common. It can easily 
be distinguished from all other owls by its small size and the tufts of 
feathers on its head, called ear tufts. The only other owl in New York 
State that is as small as the screech owl is the saw-whet, or Acadian 
owl, and this one lacks ear tufts. Any owl that you find, then, which 
is as small as a pigeon, and has ear tufts, is a screech owl. 


26 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


The screech owls do not always migrate in the fall as do most birds, 
but often pass the entire winter near the place of their birth. In the day¬ 
time we can usually find them in some thick evergreen, or oftener in a 
hole in a tree. During the winter they frequently come into our barns, 
or even into crevices in our houses, where their little talons prove good 
mousetraps. About the first of April they select suitable places for their 
nests in old woodpecker holes or in hollow limbs in the orchard. There 
they lay their white eggs on the chips in the bottom of the hole, without 
much pretense for a nest except a few feathers. 

When the eggs have hatched and there are five or six hungry mouths 
to fill, the screech owl often finds it difficult to capture enough mice; 
and then it is that it spoils its good reputation by catching small birds. 
The number of birds killed, however, cannot begin to compare with the 
large number of mice killed; therefore this interesting bird certainly 
deserves protection. — Pupil’s Speech 

Peactice 6 

Prepare to speak on one of the following birds. By recalling 
what you know about the bird, observing, conversing, and reading, 
find out all the interesting facts about it. 

1. Robin. 2. Barn swallow. 3. Chickadee. 4. Baltimore oriole. 5. Scar¬ 
let tanager. 6. English sparrow. 7. Blue jay. 8. Wren. 9. Partridge. 
10. Pheasant. 11. Owl. 12. Hawk. 13. Red-winged blackbird. 14. Crow. 
15. Woodpecker. 16. Flicker. 17. Whip-poor-will. 18. Chimney swift. 19. King¬ 
bird. 20. Phcebe. 21. Pewee. 22. Starling. 23. Bobolink. 24. Meadow 
lark. 25. Blackbird. 26. Purple grackle. 27. Goldfinch. 28. Field sparrow. 
29. Song sparrow. 30. Cardinal. 31. Vireo. 32. Warbler. 33. Thrush. 
34. Catbird. 35. Brown thrasher. 36. Bluebird. 37. Canary. 

Purpose and Plan 

Four common purposes of speaking are to entertain, to inform, 
to convince, and to persuade. Most after-dinner speakers and 
story-tellers aim to entertain; teachers commonly aim to make 
clear or inform; debaters aim to convince or make others agree 
with them; a political speaker aims to persuade his hearers 
to vote for his candidate. 

After deciding what your purpose is and collecting your material, 
decide what your main points are, arrange them in a natural 
order, and then fill in the subtopics of the outline. 


SPEAKING AND READING 


27 



Belted Kingfishers 



Young Robins Quarreling at Their Bath 



Courted!) of the Xaiioiial Abdociatiun of Audubon tSocidies 

Screech Owls on a Fence 








28 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Examples: 

THE GRIZZLY 

I. Popular opinion concerning the grizzly 

II. Description and life history 

A. Size and color 

B. Food 

C. Hibernating period 

III. The nature of the grizzly 

A. Disposition 

B. Originality 

C. Reasoning power 

D. Cunning 

IV. Necessity for protection 

A. Economic value 

B. A symbol of the outdoor life 

References 

Bartlett, Wild Animals in Captivity 
Bartlett, Wild Beasts in the Zoo 
Mills, The Grizzly 
Mills, Watched by Wild Animals 
Seton, hives of the Hunted 

HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR LIFE WORK 

I. Selecting various vocations you think you will like 

II. Testing the vocations 

A. Their advantages 

B. Their disadvantages 

III. Testing yourself 

A. Your character 

B. Your ability and strength 

C. Your health 

D. Your interest 

IV. Eliminating the work you are not fitted for and selecting a vocation 

that you like and to which you are adapted 


Practice 7 

First, select a vocation in which you are interested: accountancy, 
advertising, agriculture, architecture, army, authorship, aviation, 
banking, carpentry, civil engineering, dentistry, electrical engineer- 


SPEAKING AND READING 


29 


ing, forestry, insurance, journalism, law, mechanical engineer¬ 
ing, medicine, music, nursing, pharmacy, photography, secreta¬ 
rial work, railroading, salesmanship, social service, teaching, 
truck gardening, radio, or another occupation. Next, decide 
whether you wish to inform, entertain, convince, or persuade. 
Collect information from your parents, older brothers and sisters, 
other relatives, and friends and from such books as the follow¬ 
ing: 

Allen, Business Employments 
Ferris, Peter Crowther, Salesman 
Filene, Careers for Women 
Gowin and Wheatley, Occupations 
Holmes, How to Choose the Right Vocation 
La Salle, Vocations for Girls 
Parsons, Choosing a Vocation 
Parsons, Engineering as a Career 
Rollins, What Can a Young Man Do? 

Weaver, Profitable Vocations for Boys and Profitable Vocations for Girls 
Then write the outhne and practice the speech. 


Complete Preparation 

After assembling the material and planning, some boys and 
girls consider their speeches prepared. Others write out their 
speeches and memorize them. These are two wrong ways of 
preparing to speak to a group. The right way is to memorize the 
main points and then practice the speech a number of times 
in your own room — the more the better. Then ask one or 
more of your family to listen to you and give you suggestions. 
If you prepare in this way, you will not hesitate and stumble 
when you speak to the class, but will walk up confidently, say 
pleasingly what you have to say, and stop. 

When you have completely prepared a speech, you need no 
notes unless you wish to quote a fairly long passage or give a set 
of statistics. Consulting notes, like wrigghng, looking at the 
ceiling, or walking up and down the floor, takes your class¬ 
mates^ attention away from what you are saying to what you are 
doing. 


30 


ENGLISH IN ACTION ' 


Practice 8 

Prepare completely for a speech on one of the following city 
or community topics. The points of criticism will be eyes, 
posture, enunciation and pronunciation, earnestness, material, 
purpose and planning, and preparation. 

1. Ways of making our school of service to the community. 2. The ad¬ 
vantages of hving in our community. 3. How our city or town is being 
beautified. 4. Brief history of our city. 5. Opportunities for play in our 
city or town. 6. A local industry. 7. The future of our city or town. 8. How 
our streets are paved. 9. Need of a Clean-up-Paint-up campaign. 10. Safety 
first. 11. Fire protection. 12. What the community chest is and what it 
does. 13. Does the city offer greater advantages than the country? 14. Local 
churches. 15. Clubs and societies. 16. Three ways in which a citizen may 
contribute to the welfare of his community. 17. The most useful citizen in 
our community. 18. Care of unfortunates. 19. Transportation facilities. 
20. How city or town laws are made. 


Clearness and Interest 

If one doesn’t understand at first a printed sentence or para¬ 
graph, he can reread it and dig out the meaning. A speech is 
different. If one doesn’t understand a sentence when it is spoken, 
he doesn’t have another chance to find out what the speaker means. 
Hence in speech the rule is. Make what you say so clear that 
nobody can possibly fail to understand you. Von Moltke’s 
final instructions to his officers at the beginning of the Franco- 
Prussian War were, ‘‘Remember, gentlemen, that any order 
which can be misunderstood will be misunderstood.” 

Most of the twenty thousand movie houses in the United States 
are filled night after night because people like pictures and 
stories. Here are two suggestions for you. Paint word pictures 
and introduce occasionally an incident or an anecdote to illus¬ 
trate a point. Use also quotations, blackboard diagrams or 
sketches, photographs, and models to make your points clear 
and to hold the interest of your classmates. 

Example of anecdote: (This anecdote will help you to remember 
that the past participle of get is got, not gotten.) 


SPEAKING AND READING 


31 


From his office a New York business man telegraphed to his wife 
at their home in a remote suburb, “I have gotten tickets for the opera 
tonight.’’ The telegram delivered was, ‘‘I have got ten tickets for the 
opera tonight.” 

Delighted, she went to the phone and invited eight friends to the opera 
that night. All joyously accepted. 

When the party of nine reached the opera house, the husband was 
astonished. As soon as he realized that he had eight guests, he hurried 
off in search of tickets. He found in front of the box office a “Standing 
Room Only” sign and on the sidewalk speculators selling tickets at 
exorbitant prices. His mistake in a verb form proved expensive. 


Pkactice 9 

Prepare to tell in class two anecdotes, jokes, or humorous 
stories. Perhaps you remember an incident in the life of one of 
the following or a story told by him: 

Sir Walter Raleigh, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Daniel Webster, 
Theodore Roosevelt, George Washington, Edward Bok, Captain Lawrence, 
Commander Peary, Nathan Hale, General Pershing, Thomas Jefferson, 
Andrew Jackson, General Grant, Herbert Hoover, Chauncey M. Depew, 
Hamlin Garland, Franklin D. Roosevelt, or another great or interesting man. 


Practice 10 

Making use of a blackboard diagram or sketch or a photograph, 
explain clearly how to make or do something or how to play a 
game. Explain, for example, a girls’ game to the boys; a boys’ 
game to the girls; how to build something or do some boy’s 
job, to the girls; how to make waffles, to the boys. 

1. How to make an ice boat, a cedar chest, a bookcase, or a bird house. 
2. How to make an apron. 3. How to prepare a garden for planting, to plant a 
garden, or to care for a garden. 4. How to play tennis, hockey, captain ball, 
or volley ball. 5. How to wax a floor, shellac a floor, or refinish a floor. 6. How 
to paint a room. 7. How to take care of a furnace. 8. How paper is made. 
9. How sugar is refined. 10. How a person is put out in baseball. 11. How 
to make a bed. 12. How to set a table for lunch. 13. How to prepare a 
school lunch. 14. How to arrange furniture. 15. How to graft an apple 
tree. 16. How to use the telephone. 17. How to reach Chicago by auto¬ 
mobile. 18. How to make a camp fire. 19. How to pitch a tent. 20. How 
to play any simple game or to do or make anything. 


32 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Beginning and Ending 

First and last impressions are especially important. If the 
beginning is inviting, your classmates will gladly listen to your 
speech; if your ending is forceful, they will remember your chief 
point. If you have two minutes for a speech, time yourself often 
enough to be sure that you can finish within the two minutes. If 
the chairman’s gavel, bell, or lead pencil stops you, your speech 
is left hanging in the air and your hearers know that you did not 
reach your most important point. 

Don’t utter a word until you have the attention of the entire 
class. Take a breath. Then speak clearly and firmly. 

Peactice 11 

In preparing for a book report use this outline: 

1. Name, author, and kind of book 

2. An interesting incident or fact 

3. Principal characters with a brief description of each 

4. Reasons for liking or disHking the book 

Begin with an original sentence, not “The name of my book is 
Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling.” Either speak the 
names so clearly that every one will understand them, or write 
them on the blackboard. End with an important point. The 
points of classroom criticism will be eyes, posture, earnestness, 
material, enunciation and pronunciation, preparation, interest 
and clearness, and beginning and ending. 

Well, Why, And, But, So, Then, Ur 

Well, why, and, hut, so, and then are overworked words. Don’t 
use them unnecessarily. Avoid starting sentences with well or 
why. Don’t make a speech one long prattling sentence tied to¬ 
gether by and . . . and . . . and, so so .. . so, or then 
. . . then . . . then. End your sentences and begin new ones. 
Show by your voice where each sentence ends. 

Don’t fill pauses with urs. When you stop to think, turn your 
voice off. 


SPEAKING AND READING 


33 


Practice 12 

TRAVELOG 

The speech may be based on travel or reading. If possible, 
illustrate with stereopticon slides, photographs, or pictures en¬ 
larged by the reflectoscope. Criticism will be based on all the 
points studied. What are they? 

1. A trip up the Hudson. 2. Among the Thousand Islands. 3. A visit to 
Niagara Falls. 4. Through the Yellowstone National Park. 5. In the Grand 
Canyon of the Colorado. 6. The Yosemite VaUey. 7. A worthwhile trip. 
8. Palm Beach in winter. 9. A historic place worth visiting. 10. A report 
on one foreign country. 11. The Canadian Rockies. 12. The Shakespeare 
country. 13. The Burns country. 14. Irving’s haunts. 15. Longfellow’s 
home. 16. Whittier land. 17. The EngHsh lakes. 18. A local industry. 
19. A factory I have visited. 20. A newspaper or other office. 21. The 
chemical laboratory. 22. The school heating plant. 23. The office-practice 
room. 24. Atrip to the park. 25. The Great Wall of China. 26. Glacier 
National Park. 27. Quebec. 28. Another interesting place. 

Conversation 

If you prepare in the right way and are eager to tell the class 
what you know, your speech will sound like lively talk or con¬ 
versation, not the recitation of a memorized speech. 

Practice 13 

Prepare completely on one of the following topics. Select in¬ 
teresting facts worth remembering. Then talk to the class. 

1. An invention or a scientific discovery (see Popular Mechanics, the 
Popular Science Monthly, the Literary Digest, or the Scientific American). 
2. The biography of an inventor, a captain of industry, or a business man — 
for example, Peter Cooper, Horace Greeley, Henry Bessemer, Ezra Cornell, 
Thomas Edison, John D. Rockefeller, J. Pierpont Morgan, John Wanamaker 
(see B. C. Forbes’s Men Who Are Making America or Barton’s Captains of 
Industry). 3. Any great American now living. 4. An industry or a business 
— for example, the comer grocery, forestry, banking, or the automobile 
industry. 

Words 

Two common mistakes are the unnecessary repetition of words 
and wordiness, which is the use of more words than are needed 


34 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


to express the idea. Avoid these errors and also the faults in 
word choice mentioned on pages 519-536. 

Practice 14 

Prepare thoroughly for speaking on one of the following sub¬ 
jects. Choose correct, simple, picture-making words. 

SCHOOL 

1. Explanation of the purposes and activities of a school club or organi¬ 
zation. 2. An account of a school happening. 3. Our student council. 
4. Our hbrary and its use. 5. Report for absent pupils of an assembly or a 
recitation. 6. Why I like history (or another subject). 7. How to study. 
8. How to find information in the library. 9. Why complete the high-school 
course? 10. Why go to college? 11. Why the study of music (or another 
subject) is valuable. 12. Why play football (or another game)? 

Grammar 

In speech boys and girls often make grammatical mistakes 
which they wouldn^t be guilty of in written work. 

Practice 15 

Correct the following mistakes: 

This here book; that there book; I ain’t going; he don’t; they was going; 
you was; me and Harry went; he don’t know nothing; between you and I; 
it’s him; John he went; being I was tired, I went to bed early; these kind; 
throwed; dumb; drownded; attackted; would of; could of; hisself; them 
things; we was; wouldn’t do nothing; he laid down; he set down; 1 seen; he 
come yesterday; he has went. 

Example: 

THE MOVIES —DETRIMENTAL OR BENEFICIAL? 

At least four-fifths of the people in the United States go to see moving 
pictures. They go there for recreation and diversion. What do they see? 
It’s the same old story. 

The heroine, a pretty girl, is as innocent as an angel. The villain, 
usually an ugly man, comes along and asks the heroine to marry him. 
She refuses. He then threatens to disgrace her family or to take away 
their house, because he holds the mortgage. He then slowly starts to 


SPEAKING AND READING 


35 


pursue her, with clawing hands and bulldog face. The heroine runs around 
the table. The villain throws the table over. The heroine backs up 
against the wall and begs for mercy. Just as the villain is about to lay 
hand on her, the hero arrives. He is a good-looking chap and a good 
fighter. He knocks the villain down with a well-aimed punch to the jaw. 
The villain flees from the house, holding his jaw. He swears vengeance. 

Later the hero and heroine are out horseback riding. They are attacked 
by the villain and his followers. While the hero is busily fighting the 
bandits off, the villain flees with the heroine. After a gallant struggle 
the hero finally puts all the bandits’ jaws out of commission and pursues 
the villain with torn clothes and bleeding lips. He finally overtakes 
him, and they begin fighting. They roll over to the edge of a cliff. Just 
as the hero seems to be going over the cliff, by a sudden twist he regains 
his foothold and throws the villain over. The hero and heroine then 
kiss and walk away from the scene arm in arm. 

Fully two-thirds of our pictures are built on this or a similar pattern. 
Such pictures are not true to life but are really dime novels in picture 
form. 

Boys and girls get a wrong notion of life by seeing these blood-and- 
thunder, melodramatic pictures. Some boys even become criminals by 
imitating what they see on the screen. 

This is just one of the reasons why, in my judgment, the movies poison 
the minds of people and do more harm than good. — Pupil’s Speech 


Practice 16 

Speak correctly and entertainingly on one of the following 
topics. 

MOVIE DAY 

1. A moving picture that is worth seeing. 2. Kinds of moving pictures 
that are harmful. 3. Criticism of a moving picture. 4. My favorite movie 
actor. 5. Educational value of the talking picture. 6. Characteristics of a 
good talking picture. 7. Should pupils be permitted to attend the movies 
during the school week? 

Voice 

There is good sense in the telephone slogan, “The voice with 
the smile wins.’^ A person who has a pleasing appearance, 
manners, and voice, and speaks correct and forceful English 
creates a favorable first impression. 

No one can suddenly transform his voice. Nevertheless any 
one who listens to his own voice and the voices of others, imitates 


36 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


the good and avoids the unpleasant, and practices regularly and 
intelhgently will acquire a pleasing voice. 

Because voice is made out of breath, a person can’t speak well 
if his lungs are empty. Hence, when speaking, keep the lungs 
filled with air by taking breath at frequent intervals, always 
during pauses. Keep the back part of the mouth large and 
the muscles of the jaw relaxed. Let the voice resound or re¬ 
verberate in the mouth and the head. Focus the voice on the 
upper front teeth. Because the mouth is the loud speaker of 
the human radio, open the mouth wide enough for the tones to 
come out. Make sure that your voice reaches the person farthest 
from you. 

Practice 17 

1. Count from one to twelve, pausing for breath after three, six, 
and nine. Open the mouth to let the tone out. Watch it go down 
a long passageway. 

2. Practice in a full, round, open-mouth voice such passages as 
the following. At each pause take a breath. 

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean, roll! 

Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain; 

Man marks the earth with ruin — his control 

Stops with the shore. 

Ring joyous chords! — ring out again! 

A swifter stiU and a wilder strain! 

And bring fresh wreaths! — we will banish all 

Save the free in heart from our banquet hall. 

Criticism Outline 

1. Eyes 

2. Posture 

3. Enunciation and pronunciation 

4. Earnestness 

5. Material 

6. Purpose and planning 

7. Complete preparation 

8. Interest and clearness 


SPEAKING AND READING 


37 


9. Beginning and ending 

10. Well, why, and, hut, so, then, ur 

11. Conversation 

12. Words 

13. Sentences 

14. Voice 


Practice 18 

Sell an object or an idea to the class. If you select a magazine, 
a book, or something else that you can carry, bring it to class. 
If you decide to sell an automobile, a picture or a blackboard 
diagram may help you to make a point clear. Give accurate 
information; make your appeal forceful; use your most pleasing 
tones. Put life and vigor into your voice; don^t talk as if you 
were weak, sick, or tired. 

^ 1. Tickets for a game, a play, a concert, or a school circus. 2. A dictionary. 
3. Another book or a set of books. 4. A magazine. 5. The school paper. 
6. A fountain pen. 7. A typewriter. 8. Apples. 9. Candy. 10. The idea 
of thrift or a bank account, loyalty, sportsmanship, courtesy, safety first, 
school citizenship, a class gift to the school, keeping to the right, order in the 
halls and the lunchroom, studying science, respect for the flag, sensible dress. 
11. A recent invention. 12. An automobile. 13. An airplane. 14. A picture 
for the home. 15. A hobby. 16. Any article the merits of which you know 
and in which you can interest the class. 


Practice 19 

Suppose that your class has decided to study during the term 
one magazine, the Scholastic, the Literary Digest, Current Litera¬ 
ture, the World Review, Nature Magazine, the Popular Science 
Monthly, or another. Choose the one that you think best for 
study and persuade the class to select it. 


Practice 20 

Announce to the class a game, a club meeting, an entertain¬ 
ment, or another school activity. 


38 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Practice 21 

With a group of your classmates prepare a program for Wash¬ 
ington’s Birthday, Thanksgiving, or Christmas; on Shakespeare, 
Dickens, Kipling, Mark Twain, Booth Tarkington, or another 
author; Silas Marner or another book studied in class; plays; 
moving pictures; great Americans; famous American women; 
heroes of fiction; animals; dog stories; books about other ani¬ 
mals; sports; favorite books; or another subject. 

READING ALOUD AND RECITING 
Getting and Giving the Thought 

No one can read intelligibly what he does not understand. 
One can’t give what he doesn’t have. To get the thought of a 
sentence, a paragraph, or a stanza, first know what the entire 
selection or poem is about. Then look up any words you don’t 
know. Perhaps there is an allusion to history, hterature, or 
mythology to be looked up or a figure of speech to be thought 
out. If the sentence is complicated, find the principal clause 
or clauses, the subordinate clause or clauses, subjects and predi¬ 
cates, and modifiers. Decide to what each modifier is attached. 

To give the thought think as you read, and speak clearly enough 
to be easily heard by the pupil farthest from you. Put life, vigor, 
and enthusiasm into your reading. 

Practice 22 

Give in your own words the meaning of the following. Then 
read aloud the selections. 

1. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 

2. It is more blessed to give than to receive. 

3. Honor and shame from no condition rise: 

Act well your part; there all the honor hes. — Pope 

4. And as a hare, whom hounds and horns pursue. 

Pants to the place from whence at first she flew, 

I still had hopes, my long vexations past. 

Here to return — and die at home at last. — Goldsmith 


SPEAKING AND READING 


39 


6. He holds him with his skinny hand; 

“There was a ship,” quoth he. 

“Hold off! unhand me, gray-beard loon!” 

Eftsoons his hand dropt he. — Coleridge 
6. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet 
Are of imagination all compact. 

One sees more devils than vast hell can hold, 

That is, the madman; the lover, all as frantic, 

Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt; 

The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling. 

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; 

And as imagination bodies forth 
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen 
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing 
A local habitation and a name. — Shakespeare 

Getting and Giving the Feeling 

Most books express both thoughts and feehngs. By putting 
yourself in the place of the author and the characters, you can 
find out what the feelings expressed are and prepare to give them 
to the class. To express joy or sorrow you must feel it. If you 
just pretend that you are sorry or glad, every one will discover 
that you are shamming. 


Practice 23 

' Get and give the thought and the feeling of these passages. 
Think, imagine, feel. 

1. Blessings on thee, little man, 

Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan! — Whittier 

2. Breathes there the man, with soul so dead. 

Who never to himself hath said. 

This is my own, my native land? — Scott 

3. Lay the proud usurpers low! 

Tyrants fall in every foe! 

Liberty’s in every blow! 

Let us do, or die! — Burns 

4. Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! 

Bird thou never wert. 

That from heaven, or near it, 

Pourest thy full heart 

In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. — Shelley 


40 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


5. Oh, I have suffered 

With those that I saw suffer! a brave vessel, 

Who had, no doubt, some noble creatures in her. 

Dash’d all to pieces. Oh! the cry did knock 

Against my very heart! Poor souls! they perish’d. — Shakespeare 

Phrasing 

We read and recite, not by syllables, words, or sentences, 
but by groups of words called phrases. The words in the phrase 
are so closely joined that they seem like one long word. The 
pause between phrases gives the reader a chance to take a breath 
and the hearer an opportunity to see the pictures and think the 
thoughts of the writer. 

Example: 

He holds him | with his glittering eye — | 

The Wedding-Guest | stood stiU, | 

And listens | like a three years’ child: | 

The Mariner | hath his will. 

The Wedding-Guest ] sat on a stone; | 

He cannot choose but hear; | 

And thus spake on | that ancient man, | 

The bright-eyed Mariner. 

Down dropt the breeze, | the sails dropt down, \ 

’Twas sad | as sad could be; | 

And we did speak | only to break | 

The silence of the sea! 

Day after day, | day after day, ] 

We stuck, I nor breath nor motion; | 

As idle as a painted ship | 

Upon a painted ocean. — Coleridge 

A long pause after day after day makes the time seem longer. 
A pause after stuck impresses the inaction. 

Emphasis 

Just as in an army a general has higher rank than a private 
soldier, so in a sentence a word which expresses a new idea or 
a contrast or which is necessary for the thought is more impor- 


SPEAKING AND READING 


41 


tant than a, an, the, or another word which might be omitted 
without destroying the sense. After finding out what the im¬ 
portant words or ideas are, make them stand out by giving them 
more force or time or by pausing before or after them. Don^t 
read in a lifeless monotone. 

I will huy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so 
following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you. 

— Shakespeare 


Practice 24 


Indicate the phrasing, underscore the emphatic words, and 
read aloud: 


1 


He prayeth well, who loveth well 
Both man and bird and beast, 

He prayeth best who loveth best 
All things both great and small; 

For the dear God who loveth us. 

He made and loveth all. — Coleridge 


2 

And what is so rare as a day in June? 

Then, if ever, come perfect days; 

Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune, 

And over it softly her warm ear lays; 

Whether we look, or whether we hsten, 

We hear hfe murmur, or see it ghsten; 

Every clod feels a stir of might. 

An instinct within it that reaches and towers, 
And, groping blindly above it for light. 

Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers. — Lowell 


Inflection, Rate, and Pitch 

Usually when a person gets and gives the thought and the feel¬ 
ing, the inflection, rate, and pitch take care of themselves. It 
is wise, however, to listen to your voice to see whether it is pitched 
too high. Drop your voice at the end of a statement, but don^t 
drop it at a pause in a sentence. Speak slowly enough to be 
heard and to be understood. Vary the rate, force, and pitch to 
express the great variety in the thought and the feehng. 


42 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Eyes 

To read to your classmates, not to your book, look at them 
frequently. You can do this if you prepare thoroughly for read¬ 
ing the selection and hold your book high. 

Pkactice 25 

In reading aloud the following give the thought and the feeling. 
Phrase, emphasize, and vary the force, rate, and pitch. 

MR. TRAVERS’S FIRST HUNTi 

Young Travers, who had been engaged to a girl down on Long Island 
for the last six months, only met her father and brother a few weeks 
before the day set for the wedding. 

Old Mr. Paddock, the father of the girl to whom Travers was engaged, 
had often said that when a young man asked him for his daughter’s 
hand he should ask him in return, not if he had lived straight, but if he 
could ride straight. And on his answering this question in the affirma¬ 
tive depended his gaining her parent’s consent. 

Travers had met Miss Paddock and her mother in Europe while the 
men of the family were at home. He was invited to their place in the 
fall when the hunting season opened, and spent the evening very pleasantly 
and satisfactorily with his fiancee in a corner of the drawing-room. 

But as soon as the women had gone, young Paddock joined him and 
said; ‘^You ride, of course?” Travers had never ridden; but he had 
been prompted how to answer by Miss Paddock, and so he said there 
was nothing he liked better. As he expressed it, he would rather ride 
than sleep. 

“That’s good,” said Paddock. “I’ll give you a mount on Satan to¬ 
morrow morning at the meet. He’s a bit nasty at the start of the season; 
and ever since he killed Wallis, the second groom, last year, none of us 
care much to ride him. But you can manage him, no doubt. He’ll 
carry your weight.” 

Mr. Travers dreamed that night of taking large, desperate leaps 
into space on a wild horse that snorted forth flames, and that rose at 
solid stone walls as though they were hayricks. 

He was tempted to say he was ill in the morning, but reflecting that 

1 Taken, by permission of the publishers, from Van Bibber and Others, by Richard 
Harding Davis. Copyright, 1892, by Harper & Brothers, New York. Copyright, 
1920, by Bessie McCoy Davis. 


SPEAKING AND READING 43 

he should have to do it sooner or later, and that if he did break his neck 
it would be in a good cause, he thought he had better do his best. 

He came down looking very miserable indeed. Satan had been taken 
to the place where they were to meet, and Travers on his arrival there 
had a sense of sickening fear when he saw him dragging three grooms 
off their feet. 

Travers decided that he would stay with his feet on solid ground 
just as long as he could, and when the hounds were thrown off and the 
rest started at a gallop he waited, under the pretense of adjusting his 
gaiters, until they were aU well away. Then he clenched his teeth, 
crammed his hat down over his ears, and scrambled up on to the saddle. 
His feet fell by accident into the stirrups, and the next instant he was off 
after the others, with an indistinct feeling that he was on a locomotive 
that was jumping the ties. Satan was in among and had passed the other 
horses in less than five minutes, and was so close on the hounds that the 
whippers-in gave a cry of warning. But Travers could as soon have pulled, 
a boat back from going over Niagara Falls as Satan, and it was only 
because the hounds were well ahead that saved them from having Satan 
ride them down. 

Travers had taken hold of the saddle with his left hand to keep him¬ 
self down, and sawed and swayed on the reins with his right. He shut 
his eyes whenever Satan jumped, and never knew how he happened to 
stick on; but he did stick on, and was so far ahead that no one could 
see in the misty morning just how badly he rode. As it was, for daring 
and speed he led the field, and not even young Paddock was near him 
from the start. 

There was a broad stream in front of him and a hill just on the other 
side. No one had ever tried to take this at a jump. It was considered 
more of a swim than anything else, and the hunters always crossed it 
by a bridge towards the left. Travers saw the bridge and tried to jerk 
Satan’s head in that direction; but Satan kept right on as straight as 
an express train over the prairie. Fences and trees and furrows passed by 
and under Travers like a panorama run by electricity, and he only breathed 
by accident. They went on at the stream and the hill beyond as though 
they were riding at a stretch of turf, and, though the whole field sent up 
a shout of warning and dismay, Travers could only gasp and shut his 
eyes. He remembered the fate of the second groom and shivered. Then 
the horse rose like a rocket, lifting Travers so high in the air that he 
thought Satan would never come down again; but he did come down, 
with his feet bunched, on the opposite side of the stream. The next in¬ 
stant he was up and over the hill, and had stopped panting in the very 
centre of the pack that were snarling and snapping around the fox. 

And then Travers hastily fumbled for his cigar-case, and when the rest 


44 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


of the field came pounding up over the bridge and around the hill, they 
saw him seated nonchalantly on his saddle, puffing critically at a cigar 
and giving Satan patronizing pats on the head. 

“My dear girl,” said old Mr. Paddock to his daughter as they rode 
back, “if you love that young man of yours and want to keep him, 
make him promise to give up riding. A more reckless and brilliant 
horseman I have never seen. He took that double leap at the gate and 
that stream like a centaur. But he will break his neck sooner or later, 
and he ought to be stopped.” 

Young Paddock was so delighted with his prospective brother-in-law’s 
great riding that that night in the smoking-room he made him a present 
of Satan before all the men. 

“No,” said Travers gloomily, “I can’t take him. Your sister has 
asked me to give up what is dearer to me than anything else next to her¬ 
self, and that is my riding. You see, she’s absurdly anxious for my 
safety, and I have given my word.” 

A chorus of sympathetic remonstrances rose from the men. 

“Yes, I know,” said Travers, “it is rough, but it just shows what 
sacrifices a man will make for the woman he loves.” 

Practice 26 

Select an entertaining page or two of the supplementary book 
you are reading and prepare to read it aloud to the class. Either 
speak the name of the book and the name of the author clearly or 
write them on the blackboard. 

How to Memorize 

Memorize the first three stanzas of Gray’s Elegy in a Country 
Churchyard in the best way. 

The curfew tolls the kneU of parting day. 

The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea, 

The plowman homeward plods his weary way. 

And leaves the world to darkness and to me. 

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, 

And all the air a solemn stillness holds. 

Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, 

And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds; 

Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower 
The moping owl does to the moon complain 
Of such as wandering near her secret bower 
Molest her ancient solitary reign. 


SPEAKING AND READING 45 

These stanzas are the twilight setting of a poem about a grave¬ 
yard and the people buried in it. 

In the first sentence what is the meaning of curfew, tolls, knell, 
parting, lowing, and leaf Notice that in line 3 the poet says 
weary way, whereas we would say weary plowman. What picture 
does this sentence paint? 

In the second long sentence what is the meaning of glimmering, 
droning, tinklings, lull, folds, ivy-mantled, moping, bower, solitary, 
reignf What is the subject of fades? Nobody knows whether 
the second line means that all the air holds a solemn stillness 
or that a solemn stillness holds all the air. Where is the owl? 
To whom is she complaining? About what? What picture 
does this sentence paint? What sounds does it suggest? 

Notice that the poet, who is alone in a country churchyard at 
twilight, is in a thoughtful mood. 

Read the selection aloud, getting and giving the thoughts 
and the feefing. 

After one understands a selection, he is ready to work out and 
memorize a simple outline. 

1. Curfew tolling 

2. Cows going home 

3. Plowman going home 
14. Landscape fading 

5. Air very still except — 

a. Whir of a beetle in flight 
h. Distant sheep bells 
c. Owl hooting 

Next answer these questions in the words of the poet: What 
is the curfew doing? The plowman? What are the lowing herd 
doing? How does Gray say that he is alone and that it is getting 
dark? How does he say that it is quiet? What does he say about 
the beetle? The sheep bells? 

Notice the words beginning with p, w, and s in these lines: 

The plowman homeward plods his weary way. 

And aU the air a solemn stillness holds. 

j Read the selection again with attention to interpreting the ideas 
and the feefing. Then close your book and repeat as much as you 


46 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


can recall of the entire selection you are memorizing. Do not 
memorize a stanza at a time. When necessary, open the book to 
find what comes next. Then run through the three stanzas a 
number of times until you rarely need to use the book. Keep 
uppermost in your mind, as you recite, that you must both think 
and feel what you say. 

For three or four successive days recite the selection until it 
has become securely fixed in your memory. Then at longer in¬ 
tervals review it. 


TRAINING THE MEMORY 

Many persons despair because of their poor memories, but they are 
unwilling to give the time and practice necessary to develop them. Euclid 
said, “There is no royal road to learning.’’ Neither is there a royal road 
to develop a memory. Anyone who has the necessary perseverance and 
application can cultivate his memory. 

The first thing is to cultivate the habit of being interested. While 
doing this, we are strengthening our memory. Memory depends on 
getting a vivid first impression. We always concentrate when we are 
genuinely interested, and a vivid first impression comes through this 
concentration. 

If the memory is poor, the reason for this condition should be found. 
There are several things that could be the reason for a poor memory. 
Some of these are: ill health, lack of observation or interest, and no daily 
habits of thinking and reading. If there are any faults such as these, 
they should be corrected. There should be thoroughness, accuracy, and 
deliberateness. 

The habit of making comparisons and contrasts helps to strengthen 
the memory. It is well for a reader to take notes when reading a book. 
After the book has been read, he should try to repeat from memory, to 
some other person, the general idea of what has been read. It is a good 
policy to read a passage and try to repeat, in one’s own words, in as many 
ways as possible, the same ideas. When a passage is repeated several 
times, it soon becomes fixed in the memory. 

One may train the memory by learning a verse each day. Another way 
is for him to go into a room, take a quick glance around, walk out, and 
make a list of things he had seen. The same exercise can be applied when 
passing a shop-window. When these methods have been followed to a 
certain extent, an improvement will be seen in the memory. 

Pupil’s Theme. 


SPEAKING AND READING 


47 


Practice 27 

Memorize a selection assigned by your teacher. Understand 
the ideas, see the pictures, make a rough outline, memorize the 
outline, answer questions about the poem in the words of the 
author, notice the choice of words, and then proceed to the memo¬ 
rizing of the whole selection at the same time. 


Memorize the following sonnet: 

COMPOSED UPON WESTMINSTER BRIDGE, 
SEPT. 3, 1802 

Earth has not anything to show more fair; 

Dull would he be of soul who could pass by 
A sight so touching in its majesty: 

This city now doth like a garment wear 
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare, 

Ships, towers, domes, theaters, and temples lie 
Open unto the fields, and to the sky; 

All bright and glittering in the smokeless air. 
Never did sun more beautifully steep 
In his first splendor valley, rock, or hill; 

Ne’er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep! 

The river glideth at his own sweet will. 

Dear God! the very houses seem asleep; 

And all that mighty heart is lying still! 

— Wordsworth 










CHAPTER III 


EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING 

Meaning 

There is no sharp Hne of distinction between oral composition 
and extemporaneous speaking. In fact oral composition includes 
extemporaneous speaking, impromptu speaking, and debating. 
Debating, in turn, is commonly extemporaneous speaking. Im¬ 
promptu speaking is offhand, unprepared. Extemporaneous 
speech is prepared but not memorized. 

Importance 

Ruskin says, ^The rule is five thousand a year to your talker 
and a shilling a day to your fighter, digger, and thinker.’^ Pro¬ 
fessor Winans points out that engineers, because they are not 
trained in public speaking, seldom become presidents of engineer¬ 
ing corporations. Not only in the law, ministry, teaching, and 
pohtics, but in many other vocations ability in public speaking 
has a dollar-and-cent value. 

Mr. Allen Davis said in an address, “The Director of the High 
Schools in Pittsburgh, one of the most commercial cities in the 
world, sent out a circular letter to every business firm of conse¬ 
quence in the city, asking those firms what was the most impor¬ 
tant thing to teach students in order to enable them to grapple 
more successfully with the problems that would await them in the 
business world. With a few exceptions, the answers that he re¬ 
ceived did not say, ^Teach them more arithmetic,^ or ^Teach them 
more stenography.’ In fact, ninety-nine per cent of those business 
firms laid stress upon the advantage of being able to write and 
speak the English tongue accurately and forcibly.” 

The convincing speaker has opportunities for public service. 
Self-respect compels a person to speak so that the words of his 
mouth will not condemn him. Grammatical errors and dialect 
are classed with dirty hands, face, and clothes and bad table 

49 


50 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


manners. Patriotism suggests that he learn to speak convincingly 
in support of law and order and democratic institutions and against 
violence, selfishness, and dishonesty. The leader in high school, 
college, and public life is commonly a forceful speaker. 

Habits 

Speaking, like writing, is largely a matter of habit. Nobody can 
form habits for you. You can, however, break the bad habit of 
wriggling when speaking, for example, by solenmly resolving to 
break this habit, by practicing standing still when conversing, 
when answering questions in class, and when making a speech, 
and by never suffering an exception, never making purposeless 
movements when speaking to one person or a group. Think how 
you learned a stroke in tennis or swimming or a dance step, and 
learn to speak by the same methods. 

Bad habits are not men of straw to be overthrown but demons 
to be cast out or giants to be wrestled with. Because habit forma¬ 
tion is difficult and serious business, to succeed one needs to have 
both system and will power. A notebook with never again 
pages on which you jot down errors pointed out by teachers, 
parents, classmates, and friends is an important step towards 
success. Will power insures adequate practice and prevents 
exceptions. If a student uses his best Enghsh in the Engfish class 
four hours a week, and his worst Engfish during his remaining one 
hundred waking hours in a week, the chances are twenty-five to 
one that he will not learn to speak well. 

Posture 

Stand up. Don’t slouch. Stand easily, not lazily, with chest 
up, weight well forward, shoulders square, head erect, and chin 
at right angles to the throat. Practice relaxing the arms, hands, 
and throat. Avoid swaying from side to side, twitching the fingers, 
and other purposeless movements. Usually the speaker stands 
with the weight on the ball of one foot and with the other foot at 
a comfortable distance diagonally in front. In this position the 
weight foot may point straight to the front or be slanted out; the 


EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING 


51 


free foot is turned out. The free foot leads in a change of position. 
The weight may at any time be shifted to the advanced foot for 
such a change or for especially vigorous speech. 

Don’t acquire the habit of speaking with hands in pockets or 
of leaning on a desk or a chair. These habits indicate either a 
lack of training or a “cocksureness” that an audience will tolerate 
in a genius but hardly in a schoolboy. It is, of course, permissible 
to put a hand in a pocket or let it rest lightly on a desk at the 
speaker’s side, but such an easy position should be the exception, 
not the habit. Don’t stand with arms behind the back as if 
personating an armless statue. 

Change position occasionally at the beginning of a paragraph. 
Stand still until you are ready to paragraph in this way. Make 
the change as you begin to speak the paragraph rather than during 
a pause. The change may be several steps obliquely forward. 
If moving obliquely to the right, begin the movement with the 
right foot. Starting to the right with the left foot or to the left 
with the right foot is an awkward movement. If you are near 
the edge of the platform, the change may be a short step back¬ 
ward as you address another group of the audience. 

Mannerisms and Nervousness 

Avoid mannerisms. What is yours? Perhaps it is playing with 
a button or a chair, rubbing your hands together, rising on your 
toes, buttoning and unbuttoning your coat, adjusting your collar 
or necktie, or making faces as you speak. Mannerisms indicate 
embarrassment. Nervousness is not criminal, but advertising 
one’s nervousness is foolish. 

Nervousness is commonly a result of lack of adequate prepara¬ 
tion, lack of confidence, self-depreciation, selfishness, or cowardice. 
If a speaker prepares thoroughly, has proper self-confidence, thinks 
about his subject and his audience, not himself, and practices 
rigid self-control by standing well and breathing deeply even 
though his knees are trembling under him, he not only conceals 
his nervousness but quickly overcomes it. Roosevelt says that 
the way one overcomes nervousness is by acting as if he were 


52 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


fearless even when he is frightened. He adds, “There were all 
kinds of things of which I was afraid at first, ranging from grizzly 
bears to ^mean’ horses and gunfighters; but by acting as if I was 
not afraid I gradually ceased to be afraid.’' Gain mastery of 
yourself. 

Audience Sense 

Face the audience squarely. Look at the audience, not at the 
ceiling, the floor, or the windows. Be straightforward and cou¬ 
rageous enough to look right into the eyes of the people to whom 
you are talking. 

Talk to your hearers, not at them. Use the tone of conversa¬ 
tion but speak slowly and especially distinctly if the audience is 
large. Make a thick-skulled, slightly deaf person on the last seat 
understand everything you say. Avoid the auctioneer style. 
Senator Hoar advises a person to adopt the style of speech he 
would use in an earnest and serious dialog with some one at the 
other end of the table. Professor Winans warns against two 
common speech faults, absent-minded delivery and soliloquizing 
delivery. Absent-minded delivery means speaking without 
thinking the ideas. A reader may just pronounce words instead 
of getting and giving ideas. Frequently memorized debates and 
orations are spoken in parrot fashion because the speakers don’t 
think what they say. Soliloquizing is talking to oneself rather 
than to the audience. If you look at the audience, you are likely 
to talk to them and send your ideas into their minds. 

Talk to different parts of the audience. One experienced speaker 
always watches sharply three auditors, one on the right, another 
in the center, and a third on the left, to ascertain the effect of his 
speech. He selects people on the rear seats so that he may be 
sure that every one is easily hearing his words. 

Earnestness 

Show real concern. Be honest, earnest, animated, enthusiastic, 
and forceful. Talk simply and straight to the point. Avoid 
bookishness and formality. George R. Wendling says, “A great 
orator is a great soul on fire in a great cause.” 


EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING 


53 


Practice 1 

Prepare to speak to your classmates earnestly on one of the 
following subjects. Stand well. Avoid mannerisms. 

1. Persuade the pupils to buy the school paper or hand in news or 
articles for the paper. 2. Urge the boys to try for one of the school 
teams. 3. Persuade the pupils to buy tickets for the annual play, 
entertainment, or concert. 4. Explain the purposes and the work of a 
school club. 5. Urge the pupils to try out for the debate team or a 
musical club. 6. What in your high school should be changed? Speak 
in favor of the reform. 7. Urge your classmates to support a team by 
attending the games. 8. Speak at a Jack London, Dickens, Shakes¬ 
peare, Wordsworth, Mark Twain, Hawthorne, Lincoln, Washington, 
Roosevelt, Wilson, Thanksgiving, Memorial-Day, Armistice-Day, or 
Christmas celebration. 

Enunciation 

Enunciate distinctly. Cut your words apart. Don^t swallow 
the ends of words and sentences. Let the audience hear the last 
sound of each word and the last word of each sentence. Make it 
easy for the pupil farthest from you to understand everything 
you say. 

Voice 

Open your mouth to avoid nasality and improve your enuncia¬ 
tion and vocal resonance. Don’t talk through your teeth. The 
mouth is the loud speaker of the human radio. Improve your 
voice by practicing intelligently and regularly. 

Practice 2 

Discuss a magazine or a newspaper article. Read, if possible, articles 
on the subject in two or more magazines. A reproduction of an article 
in the Literary Digest or another magazine is not a discussion. As you 
prepare, keep in mind the six points of criticism: posture, mannerisms, 
audience sense, earnestness, enunciation, and voice. 

Purpose 

Many speakers are like the man in the old song: ^T don’t know 
where I’m going but I’m on my way.” The successful speaker, 


54 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


however, knows why he is speaking and what he wishes to ac¬ 
complish by his speech. The five common purposes of speech are 
to entertain, to inform, to impress, to convince, and to move to 
action. The humorist entertains with a good story. The teacher, 
manager, and foreman speak for the purpose of making ideas clear 
to learners. A Fourth of July orator may impress upon the minds 
of his hearers the heroism of our forefathers and the true meaning 
of patriotism. The debater is satisfied if he convinces the judges 
or the audience. The speaker who is raising funds for the Red 
Cross, an orphans’ home, or a hospital is successful only if satis¬ 
factory contributions are made. Decide which of the five is your 
purpose. In a complete sentence state the exact purpose of your 
speech; as. My purpose is to win votes for James Wilson as presi¬ 
dent of the Athletic Association. Then look at the statement to 
make sure that your subject is definite and not too broad. 

Material 

Read and talk. Don’t read entire books or magazine articles 
unless the material is directly to the point. Read as widely as your 
time for preparation permits, but find the books and articles that 
help you to accomplish your purpose. 

Outline 

Dr. Lyman Abbott mentions four important steps in the 
planning of a speech: (1) the object of the speech or the result it is 
to accomplish; (2) the central thought; (3) the analysis of this 
central thought into three or four propositions; (4) some illustra¬ 
tions or concrete statements of each proposition. 

One of these is selecting the main points or arguments to ac- 
comphsh the purpose set. Decide what are the main props sup¬ 
porting your contention or the big divisions of the subject to be 
treated. Dr. Edward Everett Hale advises a student preparing 
to speak to sit down and write to a friend a letter saying, ‘‘I am 
to speak on a certain subject, and I wish to make these points.” 
Here he should state exactly the points he intends to make. Dr. 
Hale continues, “If the student finds he has nothing to say in his 


EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING 


55 


letter, he had better write to the committee that invited him, and 
say that the probable death of his grandmother will possibly 
prevent his being present on the occasion.” This statement of 
main points may be very simple; as, 

REASONS FOR VOTING FOR JAMES WILSON FOR 
PRESIDENT OF THE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION 

I. His scholarship 

II. His executive ability 

III. His athletic record 

Arrange your material under the main points. Before including 
a quotation, an illustration, a set of statistics, or other material 
you have collected, ask yourself. Is this on the subject? Will it 
help me to accomplish my purpose? Think what objections might 
arise in the minds of the audience and how to meet them or what 
point might not be clear and how to make it plain. 

Test the relationship of the parts of the speech by thinking how 
the ideas are connected. If and or hut can be used between the 
topics, they are coordinate; if for, since, because, to explain, to 
illustrate, or to enumerate can be inserted, the second is a subtopic 
under the first. 

Example: 

RECREATION CENTERS 

I. Feud between gangs in San Francisco 

A. Resulting murder 

B. Boy’s plea for recreation 

II. Problems of New York City 

A. Increase of crime among adolescents 

B. Increase of accidents among children 

III. Play conditions of city children 

A. Home 

B. Street 

1. Traffic 

2. Gangs 

IV. New York City’s progress in recreation slow 

A. Parks 

B, Few recreation centers 


56 ENGLISH IN ACTION 

V. The needs of the recreation centers 

A. Land or space 

1. Public school playgrounds and gymnasiums 

2. Purchase or gift 

3. Roofs of buildings 

B. Play directors, not bosses 

C. Adequate appropriations 

Bibliography 

Nation, Vol. 123, p. 469 
American City, Vol. 35, p. 777-778 
American City, Vol. 34, p. 475 
Playground, Vol. 15, p. 509-510 
New York Sun, December 3, 1927 

Notes 

After completing the outline, think how the main topics are 
linked in thought and memorize them so thoroughly that before 
the class you will always know what point comes next. When 
delivering a prepared speech, have no notes unless you wish to 
use a long quotation, a number of quotations, or a set of statistics. 
Thomas W. Higginson says, ‘‘Never carry a scrap of paper before 
an audience.” 


Practice 3 

After securing material and writing the outline, advocate a 
reform, improvement, or change in your high school, city or town, 
or state. In deciding on a subject think over such school subjects 
as the courses of study, scholarship, athletics, clubs, textbooks, 
assemblies, publications, and entertainments; such city or town 
problems as social conditions, poverty, lawlessness, the automobile, 
the theater, transportation, laboring classes, education, daylight 
saving, parks, playgrounds, housing, billboards, the motor bus, 
pubhe health, safety, amusements, city manager, civil service, 
community chest, liquor question; and such state problems as 
roads, canals, parks, prisons, education, forests, moving pictures, 
old-age insurance, rivers, pubhe buildings, open shop and closed 
shop, water power, capital punishment, child labor, convict labor, 



EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING 


57 


marriage and divorce, employment of women, direct primaries, 
farming, gambling, hours of labor, income tax, industrial insurance, 
minimum wage. The criticism will include the points already dis¬ 
cussed in the chapter. What are they? 

Practice 

After preparing the outline deliver the speech several times 
to real or imaginary auditors. Father, mother, brothers, and 
sisters are a good audience for one or two dehveries and are usually 
fearless and helpful critics. Talk to the cat or canary rather than 
just i^to the air. Don’t try to fix the exact words. Make yourself 
at home in the subject by making paths through it. Adjust the 
length to the time assigned you. As you speak, visualize your 
audience and see how each point is received. Practice occasionally 
before a mirror to estabhsh the habit of standing well and to get 
rid of mannerisms. Watch for defects in your speech which your 
teacher or classmates have pointed out. 

Profit by the criticism of any one who will fisten to you. Watch 
your hearer to see whether he is actually interested in what you 
are saying. If he isn’t, find the reason and try again. 

Practice 4 

Prepare to speak on one of the following topics. For the book 
named, substitute the supplementary book you have just read. If 
you hke the book, make it so attractive that your classmates will 
read it. 

1. What I liked in Eliot’s Romola (or any other book). 2. What 
I disliked in Mitchell’s Hugh Wynne (or any other book). 3. What inter¬ 
ested me most in Tarkington’s A Gentleman from Indiana. 4. What 
I learned from Muir’s The Boyhood of a Naturalist. 5. Why Roose¬ 
velt’s Letters to His Children is worth reading. 6. A review or criticism 
of Conrad’s Lcrrd Jim. 7. A character in Burnett’s Through One Ad¬ 
ministration. 8. Contrast in Kennedy’s The Servant in the House. 
9. The setting of James’s Daisy Miller. 10. The plot of Thackeray’s 
Henry Esmond. 11. Why you should read O. Henry’s The Four Million. 
12. What you should look for in reading Wiltse’s Jim. 13. A book 
I have recently enjoyed. 14. The kind of book I like. 15. My favorite 
book. (Make your hearers want to read it.) 16. My favorite char- 


58 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


acter in fiction. Why? 17. Books that should be added to our supple¬ 
mentary reading list. 18. My favorite author. 19. Value of novel 
reading. 20. The value of the study of the drama. 21. A charac¬ 
ter sketch. 22. How to use the dictionary (spelling, pronunciation, 
meaning, etymology, grammar, synonyms). 23. How to read a book. 
24. How to use the margin. 25. The best books of the year. 
26. Books I have outgrown. 


Pkactice 5—Money 

Persuade your classmates to contribute to one of these causes: 

1. The Boy Scouts. 2. The Young Men’s Christian Association. 
3. The hospital. 4. The student aid fund. 5. The Salvation Army. 
6. An unfortunate family in the community. 7. The starving population 
of-. 8. The Red Cross. 9. A cause that needs a friend. 


Practice 6—Hall of Fame of Living Men and Women 

Select a person who deserves a place in the Hall of Fame of Living 
Men and Women and prove that your hero is truly great. 


Practice 7—Current Topic Programs 

Read a number of the Scholastic, Review of Reviews, Time, Literary 
Digest, or WorWs Work. Select four articles, write the titles on a slip 
of paper, and be prepared to speak on the four topics. In class the 
teacher will select from your list the topic which you are to discuss. 


Practice 8— A Magazine for Class Study 

Your class has decided to study during the term one magazine and 
before voting will devote a period to discussion. Which magazine do 
you think best for class study? Why? Be specific. 


Practice 9 

Let a class committee prepare a program of recitations, speeches, 
dramatizations, and games based upon a book studied in the English 
class. 


EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING 


59 


Beginning and Ending 

For many speakers delivering the message is easier than getting 
into the speech and getting out of it. Introductions and conclu¬ 
sions are often tedious, clumsy, wooden, and pointless. The in¬ 
troduction should suggest the purpose of the speech and prepare 
the audience for a favorable reception of the ideas to be presented. 
It may be a statement of the importance of the subject to the 
audience, a brief history, or a direct statement of the purpose or 
theme of the speaker. Other forms of introduction are a general 
statement to be illustrated, a striking illustration, a brief quota¬ 
tion, a reference to history, or a brief, pointed anecdote. 

Example: 

INTRODUCTION OF ADDRESS BY CLAUDE BOWERS AT THE 
JACKSON DAY DINNER 

One hundred years ago today, conditions in America had created a 
paramount issue—shall the government be restored to the people, or 
shall it be made an instrumentality of monopoly for the exploitation 
of the average man? One hundred years ago this year, Andrew Jackson 
rallied the people to a memorable battle for the preservation of popular 
government and the subordination of money to men. The people 
responded, and Andrew Jackson won. And now, after just a hundred 
years, that paramount issue is back again; and the times demand that 
the party that Jackson led shall dedicate itself anew to the principles 
he wrought for, and the victory he achieved. 

In the conclusion the speaker should take leave of the audience 
gracefully and drive home his main point. The conclusion should 
throw a new light on the subject, strike the keynote of the speech, 
serve as a climax, fix important ideas, or impel to action. 

If the purpose of the speech is to secure action—for example, 
subscriptions for a hospital, the purchase of an article, or votes 
for a candidate—the speaker in his conclusion should persuade 
his hearers to act. Always the speaker must bear in mind that 
action is more important than belief or conviction—and also 
harder to secure. Other ways of enforcing the central idea are by 
a personal reference, an illustration, a quotation, or a historical 


60 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


allusion. The prime qualities of a good conclusion are brevity 
and force. 

The delivery of the introduction and conclusion, like the subject 
matter, is important. When you have reached the front of the 
room and are facing your classmates, take a breath before speak¬ 
ing the first sentence. This will give you the stuff out of which 
to make voice and will help to overcome nervousness. Avoid 
haste in beginning to speak. Make sure that everybody hears 
your opening words, but donT begin in a high-pitched, loud voice. 

DonT hurry in leaving the front of the room or the platform. 
End the speech with your best sentence and best delivery. 


Example: 

THE INDIANAPOLIS SPEEDWAY 

Fifty miles from here is a brick oval two and one half miles around 
and composed of two and one half million bricks. This is the Indianapolis 
Motor Speedway, the greatest race course in the world. 

The world-famous drivers of the racing game come to drive in this 
race. They come for the 'immense prizes and for the added prestige 
gained by a victory in the race. . . . 

Crowds of over 120,000 people flock to the race to see the famous 
drivers and their speed creations perform. . . . The cars of the future 
are seen on the race track. Balloon tires, shock absorbers, down draft 
carburetors were first introduced on this track before finding their places 
on the passenger cars of today. . . . 

Fred France, in the 1932 grind, turned in the fastest average for the 
full 500 miles. His average was 104.218 miles per hour. His motor 
was discolored by the heat resulting from the tremendous speed. 

Wrecks and narrow escapes also are a drawing point for the crowd. 
An interesting point about the wrecks is that if the driver sees the car 
in front of him wreck, he’ll head right for the middle of the wreckage 
in order to miss it. Of course that point needs an explanation and here 
it is. When the cars are going at such a high speed and something 
happens to them, they immediately swerve in one direction or another. 
It would be taking a chance to try to go around the car. The safest 
means is to head for the wreckage, because the driver knows it will 
be out of the way by the time he arrives there. . . . 

The benefit to the automotive industry, the thrill the race gives 
the spectators, the immense prizes—all of these points just can’t help 


EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING 61 

making the 500-mile race the most impressive of any such race in the 
world. 

That’s why the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is called the greatest 
race course in the world.— Pupil’s Speech 

Practice 10 

Paying particular attention to the subject matter and delivery of 
the introduction and the conclusion, speak on “What I’d Like to Be” 
or “The Most Important News of the Past Month.” If you choose the 
second topic, prove that the news you select is more important than any 
other news of the month. 

Words, Sentences, and Paragraphs 

Boil down. Eliminate unnecessary words and repetitions. Two 
speech diseases are talking too much and saying too little. Nicho¬ 
las Longworth said, “Be brief, logical, and accurate. It is easier 
to be eloquent than concise.” 

Don’t “crank up” with well or why. Attach a self-starter to 
your speaking apparatus. Don’t hitch sentences together with 
ands, huts, or sos. Don’t fill pauses with urs. Pause before con¬ 
junctions and prepositions, not after them. Avoid and-ur, hut-ur, 
that-ur, to-ur. Professor Winans says, “Grunting is no part of 
thinking.” Oliver Wendell Holmes said. 

And when you stick on conversation’s burrs, 

Don’t strew your pathway with those dreadful urs. 

Speak in well-constructed sentences and well-built paragraphs. 

Practice 11 

Which words or expressions in the following extract from a 
pupil’s speech are effective? Why? 

In the laboratories of the Rockefeller Institute of New York City 
had been developed two serums for the cure of pneumonia. Somebody 
was instantly needed to carry it to Quebec, a distance of five hundred 
miles. 

Now into this swiftly moving drama of life and death stepped Colo¬ 
nel Charles A. Lindbergh. Without a moment’s hesitation he accepted 


62 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


the commission. An automobile was placed at his disposal, and with a 
motorcycle escort clearing the way Lindbergh swept over the Queensboro 
Bridge at fifty miles an hour and reached Curtiss Field, where a fast 
Army plane was awaiting him. 

Lindbergh, using a plane which was thoroughly unfamiliar to him, 
streaked over strange country as if death were at his heels. Ripping 
through the fog and rain at speeds ranging as high as one hundred fifty 
miles an hour and bucking a raging snowstorm, he zoomed out of the 
darkness to make a perfect landing on the historic Plains of Abraham. 

But the ColoneLs great flight to save the life of his dying comrade 
was in vain. The serum w:as of no avail, and shortly afterward Floyd 
Bennett embarked on his last great flight, whence there is no returning. 
—Pupil’s Speech 

Practice 12 

Choosing a statesman, a poet, a historian, a novelist, a philanthropist, 
an inventor, a general, an engineer, a financier, a doctor, or a worker 
in some other field, speak on “One of Our Greatest Americans.” Select 
interesting, significant, and rememberable information about the person 
chosen. If your purpose is to inform, the measure of your success will 
be how much your hearers remember, not how much you tell them. 
If your speech includes a list of dates and facts about the person such 
as are found in the articles in most encyclopedias, nobody will be inter¬ 
ested in these details or remember them. 

Variety 

Vary the pitch, force, and rate. Stress important words. A 
monotonous delivery puts an audience to sleep. 

Pause 

Pause before and after emphatic words and important ideas. 
Make the audience wonder what is coming. 

Gestures 

A graceful, spontaneous gesture adds force to an argument. 
Don’t, however, make incipient gestures, which are little move¬ 
ments of the hand at the side to emphasize a point. Make com¬ 
plete gestures or none. 


EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING 


63 


Apology 

Don^t apologize. If you prepare carefully, no apology is 
needed; if you don’t prepare, the apology does not make amends 
for your lack of work. 


Practice 13 

In a speech on the college you know best or expect to enter, 
present to the class the information that you think will interest 
them and be of value to them. Will you include any or all of these 
topics: location, buildings, courses, expenses, athletics, student 
life, advantages, and disadvantages? What other topics will be 
interesting and valuable? Hand in your outline. The criticism 
will include all the points so far discussed in this chapter. What 
are they? 


Attention 

A practical problem of the speaker is holding the attention of 
the audience. Because in every audience there are numerous 
distractions, the speaker’s task is not an easy one. For one the 
room is too hot, for another it is too cold, one girl’s shoes hurt her, 
another drops her compact or handkerchief, somebody coughs, 
and a latecomer enters. Sometimes the speaker’s appearance, 
useless movements, faulty delivery, or use of notes distracts the 
hearers’ attention from what is said. If, for example, a speaker 
looks out of the window, plays with his watch chain, and wriggles, 
his classmates will watch him instead of listening. 

William James says, ^‘No one can possibly attend continuously 
to an object that does not change.” Because monotony puts an 
audience to sleep, have a variety of subject matter and vary the 
delivery. Interest, like inattention, is contagious. If you are 
enthusiastic about your subject, think the ideas as you speak them, 
and talk to your classmates, they are likely to attend to what you 
say. Four other ways to hold the attention are by saying some¬ 
thing worth listening to, by provoking curiosity, by stimulating 
the imagination, and by using concrete language and illustrations. 


64 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 
Practice 14 


In a speech on an American or a world problem aim* to hold the 
undivided attention of every pupil. Hand in your outline. 

1. Immigration. 2. Coal. 3. Food. 4. Railroads. 5. Lawlessness. 
6. Federal control of education. 7. American participation in European 
affairs. 8. The tariff. 9. Lynching. 10. Labor and capital. 11. Liquor. 
12. Farming. 13. Prisons. 14. The League of Nations. 15. The 
i World Court. 16. Aviation. 17. China. 18. Child labor. 19. Dis¬ 
armament. 20. German reparations. 21. Government ownership. 
22. Marriage and divorce. 23. Merchant marine. 24. Military training. 
25. War. 26. Personal liberty. 27. Phihppine Islands. 28. Ship 
subsidies. 29. State rights. 30. Strikes. 31. Trade unions. 32. Un¬ 
employment. 33. War debts. 34. Trusts. 35. Wastefulness. 

Concreteness and Reinforcement 

A concrete word appeals to one of the five senses. Abstract is 
the opposite of concrete; general is the opposite of specific. A 
specific word— honesty^ for example—may be abstract, and a con¬ 
crete word— houses, for example—may be general. Because pictures 
hold an audience better than abstractions, support your general 
statements with sensory illustrations. Use your imagination. 
Keep your hearers wide awake by a free use of for instance, to 
illustrate, and for example. 

Because a hearer canT turn back a page or two to clear up a 
point and because distractions prevent listeners^ understanding 
everything that is said, the speaker must not only say exactly what 
he means and say it so definitely and clearly that no one can mis¬ 
understand him, but also reinforce his ideas. To enforce a main 
idea often there is necessary a repetition and illustration that 
would be tedious in an essay. Repeat and illustrate your idea 
until it sinks in but not until your hearers are bored. 

Criticism Outline 

1. Posture—body, eyes, hands, purposeless movements 

2. Audience sense 

3. Enunciation and pronunciation 


EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING 


65 


4. Voice—breath support, freedom, placing, resonance, pitch 

5. Wellj whyj andy hut, so, ur 

6. Words—correct, simple, suggestive, specific, picture-making 

7. Sentences—correct, clear, terse, emphatic 

8. Structure of speech—main topics, subtopics, paragraphs 

9. Definite purpose 

10. Adequate, accurate, worth-while subject matter 

11. Beginning and ending—matter and manner 

12. Conversation—not sofiloquy or absent-minded recitation 

13. Earnestness 

14. Variety 

15. Mannerisms 

16. Fluency—main points fixed in memory, a minimum of 
hesitation and repetition 

17. Attention and interest 

18. Concreteness and reinforcement 

19. Other defects—use of notes, apology, incipient gestures, 
talking through teeth, etc. 


Practice 15 

In a speech on one of the following topics illustrate and reinforce 
your ideas. Include both your own ideas and illustrations and 
material found in a book on public speaking. 

1. Reading and taking notes. 2. Outlining a speech. 3. Purpose. 
4. Inventory. 5. Introduction and conclusion. 6. Practice. 7. How 
to prepare an extemporaneous speech. 8. The importance of extempo¬ 
raneous speaking. 9. Posture. 10. Hands. 11. Pauses. 12. Earnest¬ 
ness. 13. Notes. 14. The tone of conversation. 15. Mannerisms. 
16. Speaking faults. 17. Attention. 18. Concreteness and reinforce¬ 
ment. 19. Audience sense. 20. Value of good speech. 21. Dressing 
thoughts in attractive English. 22. How we may improve our spoken 
English. 23. Voice. 24. Something to say. 

On the Platform 

1. At the beginning of the speech, when you rise or when you 
reach the center of the platform, recognize the chairman with 


66 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


'^Mr. Chairman/^ a bow, or both. Recognize the audience with 
^‘Ladies and gentlemen,’’ a bow, or both. The bow should be a 
slight bend forward from the hips and a dropping of the head and 
eyes. An elaborate or profound bow is both unnecessary and 
offensive. 

2. When introduced, walk straight to a position well forward 
on the platform. 

3. Walk on the platform as you walk along the street. Avoid 
both the stride and the tiny step. Don’t march soldierlike and 
don’t catlike steal on as if you wished to approach the audience 
unobserved. Don’t look at the floor as if searching for a lost dime. 
Look at the audience when you are walking toward them. 

4. Don’t begin to speak at the very edge of the platform. Such 
a position makes a change of position difficult and causes the 
audience to wonder whether you will break any bones when you 
step off the edge. 

5. Don’t end a speech with “I thank you.” Instead, you may 
bow slightly. 

6. Don’t walk the platform as if impersonating a caged hyena 
or a lion at feeding time. 

7. Practice correct posture and platform behavior until the 
correct becomes habitual. Then, when you address an audience, 
you may forget these details, forget yourself, and center attention 
on what you have to say to the audience and their reception of 
the message. But you can’t forget until you have first learned. 

Practice 16 

Speak on one of the following: 

1. Explanation and discussion of a recent invention or discovery. 
2. My favorite newspaper. 3. Books as friends. 4. Installment buying. 
5. Essentials of leadership. 6. The electoral college. 7. The right 
road to happiness—work. 8. Brilliant failure. 9. The value of system. 
10. Keeping a diary. 11. On the choice of books. 12. The curse of 
leisure. 13. The tabloid. 14. Success as I understand it. 15. The 
voice as an aid to success in life. 16. Music the universal language. 


EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING 


67 


Practice 17 —Theater Day 

Speak on one of the following: 

1. A play that I enjoyed. 2. A play worth seeing (or not worth seeing). 
3. A really funny play. 4. A play that was well acted. 5. Criticism 
of an actor. 6. The saddest play I ever saw. 7. Criticism of an amateur 
play. 8. Value of acting scenes from a play or novel studied. 9. How 
to act the part of Brutus, Cassius, Sir Toby Belch, Malvolio, Dunstan 
Cass, Sydney Carton, or another character studied. 

Practice 18—An Hour With Some Modern Poets 

In your report on a poet include incidents of his life, a discus¬ 
sion of his poetry, and one of his poems. 

1. Markham. 2. Robinson. 3. Amy Lowell. 4. Frost. 5. Sand¬ 
burg. 6. Lindsay. 7. Millay. 8. Noyes. 9. Kipling. 10. De la 
Mare. 11. Masefield. 12. Another contemporary poet. 

Practice 19 —Other Speaking Programs 

1. Do you know two good jokes or anecdotes? Be ready to 
tell them in class on Joke Day. 

2. What is your hobby? On Hobby Day tell about it clearly 
and enthusiastically. 

3. On Poetry Day recite a memory selection and tell why you 
think it worth remembering. 

4. Explain a business proposition or a new industry with a view 
to arousing interest or selling stock. 

5. Make a political speech in support of a candidate running for 
office in school, city, town, county, state, or the United States. 

Radio 

Of an excellent radio address delivered by Nathaniel Elsberg, 
the New York Times says editorially: 

^‘Not only was every word he said distinctly audible and com¬ 
prehensible, not only was every sentence correctly constructed 
and unmarred by a single and-uh or hut-uh, but his voice was 


68 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


carefully and successfully adjusted to the peculiarities of the 
facility that had been put at his disposal. Loud enough to be 
heard, it was not marred by any sign of strain. It flowed easily 
and smoothly on and on, but not for too long.^^ 

Major General James G. Harbord points out the differences 
between addressing a visible audience and talking to a radio 
audience: 

‘The change wrought by radio lies in the fact that though one 
address goes to an audience of thirty million the contagion of the 
crowd is gone. The magnetism of the orator cools when trans¬ 
mitted through the microphone. The impassioned gesture swings 
through unseeing space. The purple period fades in color; the 
flashing eye meets no answering glance. . . . We sit in our library, 
in a room where we are accustomed to study and reflect, where all 
the surroundings are natural. When we there hear the same man 
speak, we know him better than we could in the crowd. The 
very tones of his voice, quiet and deliberate, if he is to be heard 
by radio, proclaim his sincerity or his lack of it.’^ 

Peactice 20 

Imagine that you have been asked to broadcast on one of the 
following topics. Rehearse your speech in class. 

1. Student government. 2. What is real education? 3. Educa¬ 
tional hobbies. 4. Why go to college? 5. Educational vacations. 
6. Getting the most out of high school. 7. Educational recreations. 
8. Why complete the high-school course? 9. Place of social life in 
high school. 10. Why take music lessons? 11. Effect of athletic 
sports on morals. 12. The effect of athletics on scholarship. 13. The 
best preparation for business. 


CHAPTER IV 

HOW TO PREPARE A MANUSCRIPT 

Letters and compositions, like people, are judged somewhat 
by their appearance. It isn’t courteous or fair to expect any one 
to decipher a slovenly or illegible letter or composition. When 
tempted to hand in an untidy or almost illegible composition, ask 
yourself, ^‘Have I a right to expect my teacher to spend on my 
theme twice as much time as is needed for marking a legible 
theme of the same length?” and rewrite the composition. Perhaps 
your teacher will help you to establish the habit of writing legibly 
by requiring you to recopy a theme if it is hard to read. 

Apply these rules until you habitually prepare correct and 
attra ctive manuscripts: 

1. Use black or blue-black ink and white paper about 8 by 
103 ^ inches in size. 

2. Leave a margin of one inch at the left. Keep the margin 
even. At the end of the hne avoid crowding words, and by an 
occasional use of the hyphen avoid a long gap except at the end 
of a paragraph. 

3. Indent the first Hne of each paragraph about an inch. 

4. At the end of a Hne divide a word only between syllables. 
Place the hyphen at the end of the Hne. Avoid unnecessary 
division of words. 

5. Center the title on the Hne and capitalize the first word and 
all other words except articles, short prepositions, and short con¬ 
junctions. Use no punctuation mark after the title unless an 
interrogation point or an exclamation point is needed. 

6. Leave a blank Hne or space between the title and the com¬ 
position. 

7. Follow your teacher’s instructions concerning name, date, 
class, and folding. Perhaps your teacher will ask you to hand in 
compositions unfolded and to write on the first page one and a 

69 


70 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


half inches from the top your name, your Enghsh class, and the 
date. Leave a space between this heading and the title. 

8 . In the upper right-hand corner number the pages of the 
composition if it is more than a page long. Use figures. 

9. As every composition is planned, written rapidly, revised 
slowly and thoroughly, and then copied neatly, the completed 
manuscript should show no canceled or inserted words and few 
erasures. Make slight changes by erasing neatly with a clean 
ink-eraser or a knife and writing in the correct word or letters. 

10 . On a test cancel words by drawing a line through them or 
erasing. Insert words by using a caret and writing the words 
above the line; as, 

enclosing them 

Do not cancel words by a in parentheses. 

Division of Words 

The division of words at the ends of lines is undesirable, but 
often unavoidable. A syllable, a part of a word that can be pro¬ 
nounced separately, always contains a vowel. 

1 . Never divide a word of one syllable: hoped, schemed, swarmed, 
taught, strength. 

2. Avoid any division like e-vent and feather-y, in which only 
one letter either precedes or follows the hyphen. Avoid, if pos¬ 
sible, the separation of two letters from the rest of the word. 

3. Do not divide such short words as women, water, prayer, and 
often. 

4. As a rule, divide between the suffix or the prefix and the 
rest of the word: super-natural, trans-gress, inter-state,-business¬ 
like. 

5. Divide between the parts of a compound word: school-master, 
master-piece. 

6 . Usually divide between doubled consonants: pro/es-sor, cab¬ 
bage, vil-lage. 

Exception. In words fike fall-ing, toss-ing, and pass-able, follow 
rule 4 by dividing between the suffix and the letter preceding it. 

7. Separate two consonants standing between vowels if the 
pronunciation permits: mus-tache, moun-tain, nur-ture, pos-ture. 


HOW TO PREPARE A MANUSCRIPT 


71 


8. When two letters—for example, sh, th, ng, gn, gh, ph, sc, ck 
—have one sound, do not divide them: ele-phant, assign-ment, 
Cath-olic, noth-ing. 

9. When, after pronouncing a word, you are in doubt about 
the syllabication, consult the dictionary. 

Practice 1 

Which of these words are not divided at the ends of lines? 
Show how the other words may be divided. 

Models 

1 . dipped 

2 . con-junction or conjunc-tion 

3. thought-less 

4. mel-ancholy or melan-choly 


achieve 

compartment 

gondola 

photograph 

against 

consignment 

helped 

possible 

antecedent 

diaphragm 

invention 

principle 

boat 

enormous 

many 

rubber 

brought 

enterprise 

million 

singing 

calling 

equipping 

obey 

strongest 

cashier 

even 

omission 

structure 

cleanness 

fallible 

only 

transferred 

committee 

given 

opinion 

which 


Legibility 

1. Leave a space between words and a double space between 
sentences. 

2. Connect the letters of a word. 

3. Don’t let the loop of /, g, j, y, q, z, b, h, I, or k extend so far 
as to cut a word in the hne above or below. 

4. Dot i and j above the letters and cross t with a short hori¬ 
zontal line. Make t a stroke, not a loop. 

5. Form all letters. Differentiate a and o, u and w, h and k, 
rr and u, u and n, b and I, c and e, v and r. A rather heavy line 
is not a satisfactory I, s, a, o, or e. Always open these letters 
and the loops of h, k, b, and /. 


72 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 

Not Enough Space Between Words and Lines 



. 0 ^ 


• aS^ajul^ 




Many Letters Not Formed 




Better 



1 . Why are specimens 3, 4, and 5 hard to read? Point out all viola¬ 
tions of the five rules. 

2. Explain briefly and clearly something of interest that you learned 
yesterday in history, Latin, physics, chemistry, mathematics, or another 
subject. After writing the composition, examine your penmanship to 
see whether it is easy to read. Then copy the composition, appl 3 dng 



HOW TO PREPARE A MANUSCRIPT 


73 


/>rUrU'l^aZu. .^tAjL ~^</ZS^ ^^LiVC<y9U%^ ^>*^lO^C<^ ^ 

mAa/ l^x^czu/ ,C*^ZZ<3^ ..■^kAje.CU^ 

-■<:'</z^c5Z^/v^v^ xa/'^.SAJI^ Co-c<,>^o{ -A.C^^-c^A' 7^^ .^(^o-(J2. . 

^ -t^ , ^■zA<za^, <n/ ^ X?/ ^ 


^3—---CL/U,tS^ 

-^tAA'AjLy , ^ayLrtA.Aj^ ..'ZxjC^ yUnr't^ 



'/^/ 

yC^nU'(^A^t.flZZ^^Z^AJyKjix<^ 


4 



74 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


5 


^^jvrv'irs»AA ', Amittv 




rV'JL»^ On-?^ 




c^X*^rv»lX. 

OrvvGiX/voA ^r^CV. J^r«TC- >-=» x-^(j-<j.>«-\>;.»A -Vs-s 

* -^'*-1^ ->ry^ r^ , v5rrv; -74L»> ,,<jjvJLOtt- 


carefully the five legibility rules and the ten rules for good form. Hand 
in both copies. 

3. Practice forming the letters mentioned in the section on legibility. 


Manuscript for Publication 

1. Typewrite on one side of the sheet manuscripts submitted 
for publication. Double space between lines. Use white bond 
paper of standard business-letter size (83^ by 11 inches). 

2. In the upper left-hand corner of the first page type your 
name and address. 

3. About two inches from the top of the first page center 
the title typed in capital letters. 

4. In the upper right-hand corner number each page. 

5. Never roll a manuscript. Fold the upper third down 
and lower third up and enclose in a large envelope (4 by 93^ 
inches). 

6. Enclose sufficient postage for the return of the manuscript. 

7. Keep a carbon copy or your pen-written original. Manu¬ 
scripts are sometimes lost. 


CHAPTER V 

BUILDING A PARAGRAPH 

Paragraph Development 

A paragraph is a sentence or a group of sentences developing 
one topic. Usually to make a thought clear or convincing it is 
necessary to give reasons, effects, details, illustrations, instances; 
to compare or contrast it with another thought; to expand the 
topic by looking at it from different angles and expressing it in 
other words; to introduce the testimony of some one who can 
speak with authority on the subject; to build it out; in short, 
to transform a framework into a house or a skeleton into a man. 
A paragraph is such a development of a thought. 

After expressing the subject of a paragraph in a sentence, 
one should ask himself the questions, ^‘Why?’^ ^^How?” “What?’’ 
“What of it?” “What is it hke or unhke?” and “What example 
or illustration will make my point clear?” “What?” and “How?” 
call for particulars or details; “Why?” or “How do I know?” 
for reasons; “What is it like or unlike?” for a comparison or a 
contrast; “What example or illustration will make my point 
clear?” for examples, illustrations, and instances. In developing 
the subject sentence, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever,” one 
might answer the questions, “How?” “Why?” and “What ex¬ 
ample or illustration will make my point clear?” by giving details, 
reasons, and examples. 

Practice 1 

What method or methods might be used in developing each of 
the following sentences into a paragraph? 

1. It is often very hard to be stern with a baby. 

2. There are mind poisons, just as there are body poisons. 

3. To play a good game of tennis one needs to be able to think and 
think quickly. 

4. Swimming is a better sport than rowing. 

5. Plays have two great advantages over motion pictures. 

6. High-school courses are principally for the forming of habits that 
will be helpful in later years. 


75 


76 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


7. The development of aviation is progressing rapidly. 

8. In our modern economic world most people get a living by pro¬ 
ducing something that wiU be wanted by other people, and then going 
into the market to buy the thing that they want for themselves. 

Topic Sentence 

A topic sentence is a brief statement of the subject of a para¬ 
graph. In a paragraph of narration the topic sentence is never 
expressed, in description it is often omitted, and in other writing 
sometimes omitted. Always, however, it is possible to sum up a 
good paragraph in a sentence. Commonly the first sentence in a 
paragraph of exposition or argument is a signpost telling in what 
direction and how far the speaker or writer expects to travel in 
the paragraph. The topic sentence may be placed in the middle 
of the paragraph or at the end. The beginner, however, pro¬ 
gresses more rapidly if he forms the habit of expressing the main 
idea of a paragraph of exposition or argument in the first sentence 
and using the topic sentence as a foundation on which to build 
the paragraph. A master of the language writes paragraphs with¬ 
out much thought of topic sentences. In every field the artist 
has greater freedom than the mechanic. 

Sometimes the first sentence of a paragraph links it with the 
preceding paragraph by taking a backward look, and the second 
announces the subject of the paragraph. 

Example: 

These faults perhaps we can overlook. (Connective and introductory 
sentence) But his absolute disregard of the rights of others is a more 
serious matter. (Topic sentence) During his youth he teased, tormented, 
bullied, and tortured his younger brother and other boys a size smaller 
than he, etc. 

Practice 2 

Has each of the following paragraphs a topic sentence? If 
so, what is it? How is the paragraph developed? 

1 

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little 
statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul 



BUILDING A PARAGRAPH 


77 


has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with the 
shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and 
tomorrow speak what tomorrow thinks in hard words again, though it 
contradicts everything you said today.—“Ah, so you shall be sure to be 
misunderstood.”—“Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood?” Pythag¬ 
oras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and 
Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit 
that ever took flesh. To be Great is to be misunderstood.— Emerson, 
Self-Reliance 

2 

Before 1760 there was no deflnite distinction between capital and 
labor. Today they are two industrial classes with interests that seem 
irreconcilable. Formerly the laborer, or apprentice, worked for a certain 
period of time for the capitalist, or master, and then became a master 
himself. The learning of his trade was his wages. Nowadays the work¬ 
man is paid a stipulated amount, usually according to the time he works. 
The social conditions of the two laborers are as different as it is possible, 
perhaps, for them to be: the one living on terms of intimacy in his master’s 
family, often marrying his daughter; the other, sometimes totally ignorant 
of his capitalist’s appearance, and always separated from him by a great 
social gulf. The apprentice made one article and that a whole article; 
the laborer today devotes his time to only a part of the product, and so 
he should be able to do this particular part more efficiently. On the 
whole, we may say that, in spite of the problems in the relation of capital 
and labor today, the consumer is offered a better product than in former 
years.— Pupil’s Theme 

3 

When James Watt first saw the steam lift the lid of his grandmother’s 
teakettle, he did not think of using steam for driving mighty ships 
across the oceans or for excavating tons of earth. At first he was inter¬ 
ested in the teakettle only out of curiosity. It was curiosity which 
first started Thomas A. Edison on his inventive career. The man who 
first obtained pure chlorine was only trying to see the way in which 
different chemicals react. The boy of today who has the desire to know 
what makes the wheels go round will become the builder of tomorrow. 

—Pupil’s Theme 


Practice 3 

Clip from the editorial page of a newspaper or from a magazine five 
well-developed paragraphs. If the topic sentence is expressed, under¬ 
score it; otherwise write it out. Explain how each paragraph is developed. 


78 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Practice 4 

Using one of the following topic sentences or one of those on 
pages 75 and 76 as a foundation, build a paragraph. Then tell 
what method or methods of development you used. 

1. The advantage of not being illiterate depends finally on the 
literature a people produces and reads. 

2. The endeavor of education to keep pace with the rapidly growing 
ignorance appears to be quite hopeless, since there are year by year so 
many new things of which to be ignorant. 

3. The tabloid newspapers are a menace. 

4. It is seldom that the miserable can help regarding their misery 
as a wrong inflicted by those who are less miserable. 

5. Liberty ends where law ends. 

6. Beware when God lets loose a thinker upon the earth. 

7. The whole question of the value of a piece of literature depends 
simply on what happens inside one when he reads it, or afterwards. 

8. Half the world doesn’t know how the other half lives. 

9. The scene from the window is enchanting. 

10. He expected to be called on to recite any moment. 

11. The reason pupils do not like to read plays is that they don’t 
know how. 

12. The rain pattered gently on the windows, not knowing the tur¬ 
moil that raged within the heart of one in that house. 

13. Some one asked me the other day what fun I got out of playing 
tennis in the boiling sun. 

14. He was tall and stout, with black hair and black sparkling eyes, 
and there was a sinister something in his appearance. 

15. We are apt to shut our eyes to a painful truth, and listen to the 
song of a deceiver till he transforms us into beasts. 

16. A person’s state of mind can be judged by the way he acts and 
walks. 

17. It is a fact that good can be found in the worst of men. 

Clincher Sentence 

After driving home his idea in the paragraph, a writer may 
clinch it in the last sentence by restating tersely and vigorously 
the point of the paragraph. 

WAR AND HEROISM 

Clearly, there is no need of bringing on wars in order to breed heroes. 
(Topic sentence) Civilized life affords plenty of opportunities for heroes 


BUILDING A PARAGRAPH 


79 


and for a better kind than war or any other savagery has ever produced. 
Moreover, none but lunatics would set a city on fire in order to give 
opportunities for heroism to firemen, or introduce the cholera or yellow 
fever to give physicians and nurses opportunity for practicing disinter¬ 
ested devotion, or condemn thousands of people to extreme poverty in 
order that some well-to-do persons might practice a beautiful charity. 
It is equally crazy to advocate war on the ground that it is a school for 
heroes.^ (Clincher sentence) 

Paragraph Unity 

Unity has to do with the stuff of which a paragraph is made. 
A paragraph is unified if it sticks to the topic. After completing 
a paragraph, test it for unity by summing up the contents in a 
sentence and by noting whether the subject has been kept prom¬ 
inent throughout the paragraph. 

Practice 5 

Develop two or more of these topic sentences into paragraphs. 
End each paragraph with a vigorous clincher sentence. 

1. Every boy should learn how to do simple carpentry work. 

2. When you are tempted to be silent, ask yourself whether your 
silence is the silence of fear. 

3. An important reason for working during vacation is to gain ex¬ 
perience. 

4. From the point of view of pleasure I consider stamp collecting 
(or another hobby) an ideal hobby. 

5. As an educator no hobby surpasses radio (or another hobby). 

6. To build a strong body, a boy or girl must keep in mind the 
important laws of health. 

7. The appearance of a person makes a great difference to an 
employer. 

8. Fear is the greatest enemy of man. 

9. “Where there’s a will there’s a way” is illustrated by the lives of 
many poor boys who have become famous. 

10. The pupil who has learned to control himself makes the best 
leader. 

11. The mental effects of tennis (or another game) have sometimes 
been overlooked. 

iFrom Eliot’s Five American Contributions to Civilization by permission of the 
publishers, The Century Co. 


80 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


12. Theodore Roosevelt said wisely that thrift is common sense applied 
to spending. 

13. If you want to know whether you are a success or a failure in 
life, you can easily find out. 

14. If the person who discovers a fire remains calm, much more 
effective work can be accomplished in fighting the fire than if he loses 
his head. 

15. The worst fault in my written or spoken English is-. 

16. While the parks of the city are generally well cared for, they 
could be made much more beautiful. 

17. If a girl is to be a successful secretary or office assistant, she 
must be interested in her work. 

18. If the keynote of the successful life is service, home-making is an 
occupation second to none. 


Coherence 

Coherence means ^‘hanging together” and includes the proper 
arrangement of the ideas and bridging over the gaps between 
sentences with connectives that show the exact relationship of 
part to part. 

Arrangement 

The different sentences that compose a paragraph should 
follow one another in natural and logical order. If they do not, 
the attention of the reader is distracted, and he finds it difficult, 
if not impossible, to keep the thread of the discourse. 

Connectives 

It is not enough that the sentences of a paragraph follow one 
another in proper order; the connection of each with the preced¬ 
ing context must be made clear and unmistakable. It is of the 
utmost importance that the sentences should be connected in a 
clear, smooth, easy, and natural manner, so that the thought 
may be carried on without interruption from the beginning to 
the close. Connective words or phrases act as mortar, glue, or 
hooks and eyes to fasten the parts together. Taine, speaking 
of connective words and phrases, says, '‘The art of writing is the 
art of using hooks and eyes.” 

Useful hooks and eyes are this, that, these, those, such, and 



BUILDING A PARAGRAPH 


81 


same, personal pronouns, repeated nouns, adverbs, conjunctions, 
and connective phrases. Some of these expressions carry the 
idea forward; most of them look backward. 

Examples: 

1. After a short ride my steed stopped suddenly at a bridge over a 
small stream. First, by beating him, I tried to force him to cross the 
stream. Then I coaxed him and tried to bribe him with promises of 
sugar, but he would not cross that bridge. Finally I dismounted and tried 
to pull him over the stream, but Cicero would not budge. 

2. Entering the gulf, he endeavored to find the river Darien. This 
river he could not discover. 

The repeated word is called an “echo word.’’ 

Select the Exact Connective 

And, moreover, further, furthermore, also, likewise, similarly, 
too, in like manner, again, in the same way, and besides are plus 
signs. They indicate addition of ideas. 

But, nevertheless, otherwise, on the other hand, conversely, on 
the contrary, however, yet, and still are minus signs and introduce 
statements opposing, negativing, or limiting in some way the 
preceding statements. 

Then, now, somewhat later, presently, thereupon, thereafter, 
eventually, at the same time, and meanwhile show time relation. 

Next, in the second place, to begin with, finally, secondly, in 
conclusion, and first indicate the order. 

To the right, in the distance, straight ahead, and at the left show 
space relation. 

For instance and for example introduce illustrations. 

Hence, consequently, thus, so, for this reason, accordingly, there¬ 
fore, as a result, and it follows that indicate a consequence or 
conclusion. 

In fact, indeed, and in other words indicate a repetition of the 
idea. 

Similarly and likewise are used in comparisons. 

When the thoughts are very closely related, no connective is 
required. 


82 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Trees had been chopped down and a runway improvised in a public 
park to make a landing field. No plane had ever visited the Fiji Islands 
before. 

Review 

A paragraph is built somewhat like a wall. (Topic sentence) 
Each sentence or idea of the paragraph is like a brick of the 
wall. (Detailed comparison) For the wall one first selects red, 
buff, or gray brick, and then, as he lays the bricks, applies mortar 
to hold them together. (Details about wall) For a paragraph 
on ‘‘How to Swim,’^ a pupil selected the subtopics, breathing, 
arms and hands, thinking, and feet; decided that a natural order 
would be arms and hands, feet, breathing, thinking; and inserted 
also, in fact, and nevertheless, and repeated swimmer and thinking 
to tie the sentences together. (Example of paragraph building) 
For this reason, instead of writing a jumble of sentences, which 
resemble a pile of bricks, he built a real paragraph. (Result) 
Building walls or paragraphs requires selecting, arranging, and 
connecting. (Clincher sentence) 

CARPENTRY FOR BOYS 

1. Elimination of carpenters’ bills 

2. Preparedness in case of emergencies 

Every boy should learn how to use carpenters’ tools because the 
knowledge gained will be of advantage to him all his life. When the 
screens have to be put up, the back porch repaired, or a new front gate 
made, he will not be at the mercy of the autocratic king of the village, 
the carpenter. He will merely get out his tools, and then, in less time 
than it would have taken to send for a carpenter, a new leg will adorn 
the kitchen table. 

Then again, there is the case of emergencies. Suppose that the cellar 
stairs were to fall down some Sunday morning during a midwinter 
blizzard. Of course, it would be impossible to get a carpenter until 
Monday; but, in the meantime, do you intend to let the furnace go out? 
No, not if the boy who has studied carpentry is around. He will just 
get out his kit of tools, and in a jiffy the stairs will be back in place 
again, probably better and stronger than ever before, for he will have 
seen why they fell down, and in re-installing them will prevent the 
accident from re-occurring. Thus not only will he be able to save money, 
but he will not be inconvenienced by unexpected accidents. 


BUILDING A PARAGRAPH 


83 


Arrangement 

In the first sentence the thought is that every boy should learn 
the use of carpenters^ tools. The advantage of such knowledge 
is referred to in the second sentence. The second sentence also 
mentions that there are many occasions when a carpenter is 
required. The third sentence tells that the boy who has studied 
carpentry will be able to dispense with the services of a carpenter 
at such times. 

In the second paragraph the first sentence mentions the possi¬ 
bility of an accident occurring; the second pictures such an 
accident; the third shows the effect of the accident; the fourth 
mentions a solution of the problem; the fifth gives details; the 
sixth summarizes. 

Connectives 

He in the second sentence and he in the third sentence refer 
back to hoy in the first sentence. Carpenter in the third sentence 
refers back to carpenter in the second. 

The second paragraph begins with the words then again. 
The third sentence in this paragraph contains the phrase of 
course. The final sentence begins with the word thus. He in the 
fifth and sixth sentences refers back to hoy. 

Practice 6 

Write two unified, well-arranged, connected paragraphs con¬ 
trasting seeing a play and reading it, reading a novel and seeing 
the moving picture based on it, vacation at the seashore and 
in the mountains, home and camp, a prosperous and a poor 
farmer, a department store on Saturday afternoon and at mid¬ 
night, a schoolroom before school and during an examination, 
before and after the storm, game, or fire, two cities, towns, men, 
companies, schools, colleges, homes, teams, tennis players, speak¬ 
ers, stores, offices, recitations, books, or writers. 

Then show specifically, as in the preceding example, that your 
ideas are logically arranged and your sentences properly con¬ 
nected. 


84 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Emphasis 

Emphasis in the paragraph may be gained by applying the 
rules for sentence emphasis, by beginning and ending the para¬ 
graph with important ideas, and by giving extra space to the 
principal detail. The first sentence is important because it 
first catches the eye; the last, because, if well written, it will be 
remembered longest. A paragraph may be built Hke a ladder. 
The reader is then led step by step to the climax or most impor¬ 
tant idea on the subject. 


Practice 7 

Examine each of the following paragraphs and answer these 
questions about it: 

1. Is there a topic sentence? What? 

2. Is there a clincher sentence? What? 

3. Does the paragraph possess unity—that is, do all the sentences 
bear on the topic? Prove. 

4. Are the sentences arranged in logical order? Prove. 

5. Are the sentences smoothly and properly connected? How? 

6. Is the paragraph emphatic? Prove. 

7. How is the paragraph built or developed? 

1 

In spite of his great size the elephant is quite timid. A strange animal 
or an unfamiliar noise will start him in a panic. Once Tody Hamilton, 
the Barnum and Bailey press agent, had me demonstrate to a group of 
New York reporters how easy it is to frighten an elephant. It was at 
the winter quarters in Bridgeport. We had at the time some two or 
three dozen elephants and I let a pig loose among them. There was a 
commotion at once. They snorted and squealed and kicked—and by 
the way they can use their hind legs like Gatling guns. I also put some 
rats in among them and they were just as afraid of them. If they had 
not all been well chained, the whole bunch of them would have run away. 
—George Conklin, The Ways of the Circus 

2 

In a nutshell this is Japan’s problem: She has more than sixty million 
people in a territory smaller than the state of California, and her popula¬ 
tion is increasing by seven hundred thousand each year. More than 
half of her people are agriculturists, and the average size of a Japanese 



BUILDING A PARAGRAPH 


85 


farm is about two-thirds of an acre. Furthermore, she is very poor in 
those natural resources which form the blood of modern industry—that 
is, coal, iron, and petroleum. Japan must find an adequate supply of 
these resources, and she must find an outlet for her growing population. 
Her problem can be roughly summed up in three words: ^‘metal and 
emigration .”—The Outlook 


3 

About this time I met with an odd volume of the Spectator. I had 
never before seen any of them. I bought it, read it over and over, and 
was much delighted with it. I thought the writing excellent, and wished 
if possible to imitate it. With that view I took some of the papers, and 
making short hints of the sentiments in each sentence, laid them by a 
few days, and then, without looking at the book, tried to complete the 
papers again by expressing each hinted sentiment at length, and as 
fully as it had been expressed before, in any suitable words that should 
occur to me. Then I compared my Spectator with the original, discovered 
some of my faults, and corrected them. But I found I wanted a 
stock of words, or a readiness in recollecting and using them, which I 
thought I should have acquired before that time, if I had gone on making 
verses; since the continual search for words of the same import, but of 
different length to suit the measure, or of different sound for the rhyme, 
would have laid me under a constant necessity of searching for variety, 
and also have tended to fix that variety in my mind, and make me master 
it. Therefore I took some of the tales in the Spectator, and turned them 
into verse; and after a time, when I had pretty well forgotten the prose, 
turned them back again.— Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography 

4 

Naylor wound up and seemed to put every ounce of energy he had in 
him into the pitch. The ball sped toward the plate like a rifle bullet, 
and looked as if it were going high and on the outside. But just before 
it reached the plate, it hopped sharply down and in, and cut the plate 
in half. “Strike two!” bellowed the umpire. Three and two! The 
crowd was tense and silent. Jones and Bush took recklessly long leads. 
Cobb shifted to a firmer position, swinging his bat as he did so. 

5 

The successful salesman must know his goods thoroughly and believe 
in them. For instance, the automobile salesman must understand the 
mechanics of his motor, the self-starting system, storage batteries, lights, 
and electrical wiring. He should also be acquainted with other makes of 
cars in order to compare them and point out to the prospective buyer 
the exclusive features of his car. If he is selling Willys-Knight cars, he 



86 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


must know and explain why the sleeve-valve system in their motors is 
superior to the valve-in-head construction used by the Buick people. 
A clothing salesman must be an experienced judge of cloth and fabrics. 
He should know fine tailoring and poor workmanship when he sees it. 
The rule holds true, no matter what the goods may be, that the sales¬ 
man who is sincere and has studied his article inspires confidence. 

Pkactice 8 

Select three or four of these topics, build on each a unified, 
well-arranged, connected, emphatic paragraph, and discuss the 
arrangement and connectives of one paragraph: 

1. How to write a paragraph. 2. The most important thing I have 
learned in school. 3. How I made a dress for two dollars. 4. Should 
novels be illustrated? 5. One cause of poverty. 6. How to buy food 
cheaply. 7. Differences between an Airedale and an Irish terrier, snow 
and hail, dew and rain, an elm and an oak, a peeper and a bullfrog, a 
song sparrow and an English sparrow, wool and cotton, walking and run¬ 
ning, or labor and exercise. 8. The objectives in the study of English. 
9. One way to raise money for church or charity. 10. When is silence 
golden? 11. How to plan one’s day. 12. My estimate of a living states¬ 
man or politician. 13. My opinion of a living novelist, short-story writer, 
dramatist, or poet. 14. The characteristics of a well-known American 
business man. 15. The purpose of a school paper. 16. Why read fiction 
or biography? 17. Why I enjoy hunting, fishing, reading, riding, or 
housework. 18. Should a business man read poetry? 



CHAPTER VI 


SOMETHING TO SAY 

To get thoughts, to have something to say, is the hardest 
and most important part of writing or speaking. 

Know Your Subject 

Many compositions, magazine articles, books, and themes are 
thin. A magazine article is stretched into a book, or a two- 
page theme is padded out until it fills ten pages. Although some 
writers strive heroically by their cleverness to conceal the inade¬ 
quacy of their material, the average reader, unsatisfied with mere 
words, turns to the author whose aim is to say something to somebody. 

One's eyes, ears, nose, fingers (feeling), tongue (taste), memory, 
imagination, conversation, reading, thinking, and experimenting 
supply the raw material out of which to build compositions. 
And one can write more clearly and effectively about what he 
knows in a first-hand way, his experience and observation, than 
about a subject he has looked up in the library. Richard Halli¬ 
burton, for example, after swimming the Hellespont, climbing 
Mount Olympus and the Matterhorn, and running the original 
Marathon wrote more entertainingly about his experiences than 
he could have written on topics he had read about. 

Often, however, to speak authoritatively on a subject you 
will need to supplement your knowledge by conversing and read¬ 
ing. When you secure information from books or magazines, 
always read two or more articles or books and by thinking over 
carefully what you have read make the material your own before 
using it. Read for facts, not opinions. In your composition 
place quotation marks around the exact words of another, but 
quote rarely, if at all. 

Observation 

Homer, according to Professor Palmer of Harvard University, 
wrote interestingly because he “looked long at a thing." He 

87 


88 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


observed and saw—didn’t just lazily look at. Writing often 
stimulates observation. At a fire, accident, exhibition, or enter¬ 
tainment the reporter, who knows that he must write a news 
story, sees more than the average person. 

Of the value of the power of observation and reasoning to an 
engineer the distinguished English scientist. Professor Karl 
Pearson, says, “The lads who paid attention to method, who 
thought more of proofs than of formulae, .who accepted even the 
specialized branches of their training as a means of developing 
habits of observation rather than of collecting ‘useful facts’ 
have developed into men who are succeeding in life. The only 
sort of technical education the nation ought to trouble about 
is teaching people to see and think.” 

Pkactice 1 

1. Study one of the pictures in this chapter. List as many items or 
details as you can. In a sentence or two for each describe eight items or 
details. 

2. Selecting, if possible, a scene with action in it, picture what you can 
see from a window of your home. Include all details that make the 
word picture more vivid. 

3. List the sounds heard in school, on the street, in the country, at a 
football game, or over the radio. In a sentence describe each sound on 
your list. 

Note-Taking 

Most writers—Hawthorne and Emerson are notable examples— 
have the habit of recording in notebooks sights, sounds, experi¬ 
ences, thoughts, and fancies which may be starting points or 
good material for essays, articles, short stories, poems, novels, or 
sketches. The notebook not only preserves material for later 
use but also stimulates observing, listening, and thinking. 

When taking notes on a lecture or speech, by hstening before 
you write get the thoughts expressed and select the important 
points. When possible, arrange the material in the form of a 
topical outline. Express the important thoughts or facts briefly 
and accurately in your own words—do not attempt to copy 
the speaker’s language. Make free use of contractions, the 
standard abbreviations, abbreviations of your own invention. 



SOMETHING TO SAY 


89 

















90 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


and mathematical signs such as =, +, —, and <. As 

a rule, omit articles, connectives, and the verb to he. 

Example of running notes on a talk on culture: 

Cul. bouquet, aroma of experience. Not every ed. person cul. Witty 
Frenchman says cul. what remains when you have forgotten what learned. 

Word farmer’s image, suggesting rich ground, plowing & crops. 

Not anemic fastidiousness. Person merely filled w. learning crude. 
Active. Using what is learned from books, pictures, music, and experience. 
Making highest self function. Interplay of life and ideas. 

Cul. discrimination in life. Many blind to beauties about them, 
Parthenon, St. Peter’s dome, and deaf to Wagner and Beethoven. Cul. 
man knows, sees, hears, discrim., appreciates. 

When taking notes on a book or magazine article in preparation 
for writing a composition or report— 

1. Use library cards (3 by 5 inches) or small sheets of paper. 

2. Write on only one side. 

3. Place the topic in the upper left-hand corner. 

4. Write the source of the information with page reference 
near the top of the card. 

5. Use a separate card for each point. If two or more cards 
are needed for the material on a point, number them and clip 
them together. 

6. Jot down only facts and ideas, not the author’s words, 
unless you find a phrase or sentence which you wish to quote. 

7. Use abbreviations freely. 

Example: 


Developing a Sense of Humor 

John Erskine, the Century, February, 1928, p. 421 

Humor can be learned and taught. See. Understand own 
queerness and peculiarities of others and accept them. Study 
temperament of fellows. Remember how rel. unimportant 
pec. are, humor them. Know human nature. Think of 
human life in general terms. 





SOMETHING TO SAY 


91 


Card Catalog 

The card catalog, which is the index of the Hbrary, is made up 
of cards (3 by 5 inches) of three kinds. An author card has at 
the top the name of an author; a title card, the name of a book; 
and a subject card, a topic treated. (In most libraries the heading 
of the subject card is in red.) All these cards are filed alphabeti¬ 
cally in a cabinet of small drawers. 

If you do not find books under the subject heading you are 
looking up, try other words of similar meaning. If, for example, 
you find no books on the Parole System, try Crime, Prisons, 
Penology, Penitentiaries, Punishment, and Pardon. Look at 
the bottom of subject cards for ‘^see also’’ references to related 
topics. 

The Readers* Guide 

Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature is a guide to magazine 
articles published from 1802 to 1907. The Readers^ Guide, an 
index of magazine articles since 1900, is brought up to date each 
month. It is an alphabetical fist under author, subject, and 
title when necessary. 


Practice 2 

In the library examine the Readers’ Guide. Learn its system. Prepare 
to talk to the class on “How to Find Magazine Articles on a Subject.'^ 

Selecting What to Read 

A high-school pupil preparing to write on “Causes of Crime,” 
“The Proper Treatment of the Criminal,” or “The Character 
of Roosevelt” does not have time to read all the books and maga¬ 
zine articles on the subject. How shall he decide what to read? 
By noticing the name of the author and glancing through the 
article, he can usually discover whether he should return the 
magazine to the shelf or rack, skim the article, or read it care¬ 
fully. By noting the name of the author and the date of the 
book, examining the title page, the preface, the introduction, and 
the table of contents, glancing through the book, and looking 


92 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


for his topic in the index, one can decide intelUgently what parts 

of a book, if any, to read. 

Useful Reference Books 
Encyclopedias 

Encyclopcedia Britannica. 14th ed. 1929. 24 vols. Authoritative and 
full. 

New International Encyclopedia. 1923. 25 vols. Supplement, 1924. 

2 vols. Briefer articles. Biographies. 

Encyclopedia Americana. 1925. 30 vols. 

Chambers Encyclopedia. 1928. 10 vols. 

National Encyclopedia. 1932. 10 vols. 

Dictionaries 

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia. Most comprehensive and detailed 
American dictionary of the encyclopedic type. 

Murray, Sir J. B. H., ed. New English Dictionary. Exhaustive and 
scholarly treatment of the derivation, meaning, changes in meaning, 
and use of words. Known also as the Oxford Dictionary. 

Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary. 1925. 

Webster, Noah. New International Dictionary. 1927. 

Almanacs 

Eagle Almanac; World Almanac; Chicago Daily News Almanac. Useful 
handbooks of statistical and miscellaneous information. 

Biography 

Who’s Who; Who’s Who in America. Brief accounts of living men and 
women. 

Cyclopedia of American Biography. 1928. 11 vols. Appleton’s revised. 
Includes living persons. 

Century Cyclopedia of Names. 1914. Issued as volume 11 of the Century 
Dictionary. Also published separately. A useful and reliable refer¬ 
ence book. Pronunciation indicated. 

Champlin, J. D. Young Folks’ Cyclopcedia. Persons. 1924. Many 
recent figures in public life, literature, art, and science are included. 

Dictionary of American Biography. 1928, vol. 1. Other volumes in 
process of publication. 

Literary Reference Books 

Baker, E. A. Guide to the Best Fiction in English. 1913. Well anno¬ 
tated and indexed. 



SOMETHING TO SAY 


93 



Publishers Photo Service 

The Pyramids op Egypt Framed by Palm Trees 










94 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Baker, E. A. Guide to Historical Fiction. 1914. Comprehensive list. 
Good annotations and index. 

Bartlett, John. New Concordance to Shakespeare. 1910. Index to 
words, phrases, and passages in the works of Shakespeare. 

Brewer, E. C. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1896. Origin of com¬ 
mon phrases, allusions, and words that have a special meaning. 

Brewer, E. C. Readers Handbook. 1899. References to familiar names 
in fiction, allusions, proverbs, plots, stories, and poems. 

Champlin, J. D. Young Folks’ Cyclopcedia of Literature mid Art. 1901. 
Brief accounts of acknowledged masterpieces in literature and art, 
including architecture, sculpture, painting, and music. 

Granger, Edith. Index to Poetry and Recitations. 1918. Includes 
prose and verse. Indexed under titles, authors, and first lines. Ap¬ 
pendices contain suggestive lists for special days. 

Wheeler, W. A. Explanatory and Pronouncing Dictionary of Noted 
Names of Fiction. 1893. 

Wheeler, W. A. Who Wrote It? 1887. Titles of famous works in all 
literatures. 

Quotations 

Bartlett, John. Familiar Quotations. 1914. Standard collection. 
Arranged chronologically by authors. Quotations in foreign languages 
given only in translation. 

Hoyt, J. K. New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1927. English, 
Latin, and modern foreign languages. Arranged alphabetically by 
subject. Separate concordance for Latin and foreign quotations. 

Walsh, W. S. Prose and Poetical Quotations. 1921. Arranged alpha¬ 
betically by subject. Excellent index. Includes quotations in foreign 
languages. 

Social Backgrounds 

Ashton, John. Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne. 

Boas, R. P. and Hahn, Barbara. Social Backgrounds of English Litera¬ 
ture. 1923. 

Quennell, Mary and Quennell, C. H. B. History of Everyday Things 
in England. 

Traill, H. D. Social England. 1904. 6 vols. 

Synonyms and Antonyms 

Allen, F. S. Synonyms and Antonyms. 1921. 

Crabb, George. English Synonyms. 1917. 

Fernald, j. C. English Synonyms and Antonyms. 1914. 

Roget, P. M. Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases. 1925. Ar¬ 
ranged to assist in literary composition. Helpful to any one searching 
for the best word. 


SOMETHING TO SAY 


95 


Practice 3 

Find in the library the answers to these questions: 

1. Who won last year the Pulitzer prize for the best American novel 
of the year? For the best American play of the year? For the best 
cartoon of the year? 

2. How old was Charlie Chaplin when he went on the stage? 

3. Who was Leatherstocking? 

4. What is the nationality of Herbert Hoover’s ancestors? 

5. How many home runs did Babe Ruth score in 1928? 

6. Where is Mount Rainier? How high is it? 

7. Which college is the older, Yale or William and Mary? 

8. When and where was Henry Ford born? 

9. Why is Florence Nightingale famous? 

10. How much does it cost to send a letter to Italy? 

11. Who wrote the poem, “King Robert of Sicily”? 

12. What is Poet’s Corner? 

13. What is the capital of Bolivia? 

14. In which of Shakespeare’s plays is the line, “Ambition should be 
made of sterner stuff”? 

15. Name a volume of poetry written by Robert Frost. 

16. Which is the farther north, Constantinople or New York City? 

17. Who is the president of Leland Stanford University? 

18. What are the qualifications for voting in Indiana? 

Practice 4 

Secure in the library adequate material for a four-hundred- 
word essay or article on one of the following topics: 

1. The causes of crime. 2. The prevention of crime. 3. Boys’ gangs. 
4. The character of Lincoln. 5. The recall. 6. The honor system. 
7. The effects of alcohol on the body. 8. City managers. 9. The initi¬ 
ative. 10. The probation system. 11. Radio broadcasting. 12. Educa¬ 
tion in Russia. 13. The Chinese theater. 14. Should a healthy, strong 
boy play football? 15. The moving picture as an educator. 16. The 
commission form of government. 17. Apple raising. 18. The value 
of examinations. 19. What is socialism? 20. The boss in politics. 
21. Free verse. 22. The education of the blind. 


CHAPTER VII 

BUILDING A COMPOSITION 

Subject 

The subject of a theme or speech should be one that is inter¬ 
esting to the speaker or writer and that he is capable of handhng. 
To write entertainingly or informingly on a topic one must be 
enthusiastic about it and also either be an authority on it or find 
the needed information. 

In selecting a subject consider also your audience. Ask your¬ 
self, Can I interest my audience in this subject? Is it adapted to 
them? Audiences are interested in both unusual topics and 
new, fresh phases or treatments of old subjects. 

Finally think about your abihty to develop the topic fully 
and specifically in the space or time given. On a broad subject 
most pupils write boresome generalities instead of getting down 
to illuminating and entertaining examples, illustrations, pictures, 
and details. If your subject is too broad, narrow it by selecting 
one phase, aspect, or division. 

Practice 1 

Which of the following subjects are narrow enough for a specific 
and fairly full treatment in three hundred words? 

1. Birds. 2. The screech owl. 3. How I trained a squirrel. 4. What 
I have learned in English this year. 5. My vacation on a farm. 
6. Chased by a bull. 7. Child labor. 8. Immigration. 9. Prohibition. 
10. The Indian method of dealing with children. 11. The grizzly bear. 
12. How to rid our city (or town) of bootleggers. 13. Making a camp. 
14. Camping. 15. A trip to Niagara Falls. 16. At Coney Island. 

Planning 

Composition means “putting together,” not aimlessly tossing 
together words and sentences as a child piles up his blocks, but 
putting together ideas to accomplish a purpose as a carpenter 

96 


BUILDING A COMPOSITION 


97 


nails boards on a framework in carrying out an architect’s plan. 
The carpenter, unhke the small child, knows what he is making. 
A plan is as necessary in building a composition as in building 
a table, a fireless cooker, or a skyscraper. For a brief composition 
the plan may be mental, but in general a pen or pencil and a 
piece of paper aid in making ideas definite and accurate. Always 
before writing plan your campaign; don’t scribble down as a 
theme everything that comes into your head. 

Purpose 

As the plan depends upon the purpose, first set down on paper 
or say aloud just what you wish to accomplish. The statement 
should name the person or group at whom you are aiming. 

Example: 

I am writing this theme for the Classbook, which will be bound and 
placed in the library. I wish to give such an explanation of mining en¬ 
gineering as will guide pupils in the choice of a vocation. 

Most subjects may be attacked in a variety of ways. For 
example, in writing about ^‘Yesterday’s Baseball Game” one’s 
purpose might be to paint a colorful picture of the game, to 
write a play-by-play account of the game, to show why his team 
lost, to prove that the team needs more school support, or to 
show that the students have yet something to learn about good 
manners at a game. In writing about “Our Dirty Streets” one’s 
purpose might be to show what dangers to health there are in 
street dirt, to prove that the Street Cleaning Department is 
inefficient, or to make clear what high-school students can do to 
improve the condition of the streets. 

Rough Plan 

Next it is well to jot down more or less at random all your 
ideas on the subject. 

MINING ENGINEERING 

What a mining engineer does 

The Columbia University course in mining engineering 


98 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Uncle Will took that course 
How a mining engineer gets his start 
My visit to an anthracite coal mine 
Is the field overcrowded? 

Work 

Pay 

High cost of living 
Health 

Qualities needed to be successful 
Opportunity for service 

Then ask yourself these questions: Which topics will not help 
me to accomplish my purpose? What other information do I 
need? Are all topics of equal importance, or have I set down 
some subtopics? What is a sensible arrangement of the main 
topics? 

Main Topics 

After answering these questions, you have an outline in this form: 

I. The work of a mining engineer 

H. Opportunities in the field 
HI. Remuneration 

IV. Preparation 

V. Qualities of a successful mining engineer 

VI. Conspicuous advantages and disadvantages of the vocation 

Pkactice 2 

Jot down on a piece of paper or on separate cards all the ideas 
that come to you on one of the following topics. Then decide 
what the main topics are and arrange them in a sensible order. 

1. The “movie habit.2. Chemistry in modern life. 3. Privileges of 
childhood. 4. Books as magic carpets. 5. An outstanding living Ameri¬ 
can. 6. Good government in our town. 7. The disadvantages of being 
healthy. 8. Studying in summer. 9. Getting a summer job. 10. On 
living up to a reputation. 11. The art of doing without things. 
12. Illustrated books. 

Subtopics 

To complete the outline, insert subtopics. Note the arrange¬ 
ment of subtopics under one main topic. 

V. Qualities of a successful mining engineer 


BUILDING A COMPOSITION 


99 


A. Sound constitution and good health 

B. Social qualities 

1. Ability to handle men 

2. His happiness not dependent on social pleasures of city 

C. Intellectual qualities 

1. Close observation 

2. Clear thinking 

3. Sound judgment 

4. Originality 

D. Moral qualities 

1. Will to work hard 

2. The never-say-die spirit 

How to Write a Topical Outline 

1. Use the Harvard system of notation and uniform indention. 
Note the illustration. Print the capital letters used. Keep 
corresponding letters or numbers in vertical columns: A, C, D; 
1, 2, 3, 4. Subtopics under an Arabic numeral call for small letters. 
Subtopics under a, h, c are marked (1), (2), (3). 

2. Capitalize the first word of each topic and words that would 
he capitalized in a sentence. 

3. Use parallel phrasing for coordinate headings in a set. In 
the first illustration nouns or nouns with modifiers are used 
throughout. Sentences make a longer outhne but express more 
definitely the important ideas. A mixture for coordinate head¬ 
ings in a set (A, a noun topic and B, a sentence, or vice versa) 
is objectionable. 

4. Punctuate consistently. Note the punctuation in the illus¬ 
trations. 

5. If a topic occupies two or more lines, begin lines after the first 
a little farther to the right than the beginning of the first line. 

6. If the words introduction, body, and conclusion are used, 
donH number them. 

7. Avoid the use of single subtopics. Think what subdivision 
means. When you are tempted to write one subtopic, recon¬ 
struct the main topic and include the point in it. 

8. Avoid having a large number of main topics. Test your 


100 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


main topics by asking about each, Is this really one of the im¬ 
portant divisions of the subject or only a subtopic? 

9. Avoid overlapping of topics. See that no point disguised 
in different words is allowed to appear twice. 

10. Cover the subject completely. Find subtopics that add up 
to the topic under which they fall. The outline on dish washing 
on page 101 is complete if the four main topics cover the subject, 
if the five subtopics under preparation completely cover that 
subject, and so on; 

11. Avoid empty topics. Make your outfine full of information. 
Topics like value, purposes, results, economic results, and physical 
benefits are empty unless subtopics give specific information. 

12. If you find any topics that at first seem relevant but are not 
to the point, throw them out without hesitation. 

Peactice 3 

Show that the following sets of main topics either overlap or 
do not cover the subject: 

THE MAN IN UNIFORM 

I. The meaning of the uniform 

II. The work of a policeman 

III. His protection of children 

THE SPIDER 

I. Of what use each part of a spider’s body is 

II. How he builds his home 

III. How he secures his food 

IV. How he catches flies 

V. How he cares for baby spiders 

VI. Whether on the whole he is a friend or a foe 

VII. What harm and what good he does 

THE TRAFFIC PROBLEM IN CHICAGO 

I. Importance of the traffic problem 
II. Causes of delays in traffic 

III. Causes of accidents 


BUILDING A COMPOSITION 101 

Practice 4 

Show that in the following examples the phrasing for coordinate 
headings in a set is not grammatically the same. Make the 
headings parallel in structure. 

1 

а. Prohibit the motorist who is making a wrong turn from making the 

turn at that particular corner 

б. Left turns only on certain blocks 

2 

a. With lights against them pedestrians edge off the sidewalk and de¬ 

crease the number of lanes of traffic 

b. By crossing in the middle of the block and thus reducing the speed 

of the motorists 

3 

a. Popular opinion concerning the grizzly bear 

b. What the real nature of the grizzly bear is 

Noun-and-Modifiers Outlines 

DISH WASHING 

I. Preparation for washing dishes 

A. Arranging for hot water 

B. Putting away all food 

C. Scraping refuse into pan or pail 

D. Piling similar dishes together 

E. Having ready a clean dishcloth and a supply of clean, dry 

towels 

II. Order in dish washing 

A. The glassware first 

B. Then cups and saucers and cleanest dishes 

C. Next the silver 

D. Plates and remaining dishes 

E. Cooking utensils 

III. Washing, rinsing, drying, and putting away the dishes 

IV. Care of dishcloths, towels, dishpan, and sink 

SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS BEFORE AN AUDIENCE 
I. Importance of the subject 

A. The importance of speech in the spreading of ideas in a de¬ 
mocracy 


102 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


B. Reason many speakers are unimpressive 

II. Symptoms of self-consciousness on the floor 

A. The head 

1. Looking away from the audience 

2. Unnatural movements 

3. Awkward position 

B. The voice 

1. Irregularity 

2. Weakness 

C. The hands and arms 

1. Twitching fingers 

2. Constrained positions 

3. Purposeless movement 

D. The body 

1. Stiffness and awkwardness 

2. Unnatural positions 

E. The feet and legs 

1. Involuntary movement 

2. Position 

III. Causes of self-consciousness 

A. Cowardice or lack of self-confidence 

B. Selfishness—thinking about self instead of audience 

C. Lack of preparation 

IV. Remedies 

A. Courage for the first few attempts 

B. Lively interest in subject and audience, which leads to forget¬ 

fulness of self 

C. Thorough preparation 

Z). Taking advantage of every opportunity to speak 

Sentence Outline 

BRIEF HISTORY OF COTTON 

I. After cotton had been known by the people of India for two 
thousand years, Alexander the Great discovered it there. 

A. His generals reported shrubs bearing tufts or bunches of wool. 

B. His soldiers used the vegetable wool for bedding and as pads 

for their saddles. 

II. All the Spanish explorations proved that the cultivation and 
manufacture of cotton were known to natives of South America. 

A. Cortez was impressed by the fine embroidered mantles. 

B. Before the times of the Incas, the “Chimu” used cotton gar¬ 

ments. 


BUILDING A COMPOSITION 


103 


III. Cotton was known in North America before the time of Columbus. 

A. Some of the first articles that attracted Columbus’s attention 

were made of cotton. 

B. Cubans used cotton hammocks and wore cotton garments. 

Practice 5 

OUR COMMUNITY 

Write the outline of a composition on one of the following 
subjects: 

1. What our community needs most. 2. What value a community 
house would have. 3. The value of community gatherings. 4. Should 
the community provide a swimming pool, a skating pond, or an athletic 
field? 5. An industry of our community. 6. Care of unfortunates, 
paupers, and cripples. 7. Cost of the city or town government. 8. How 
city or town laws are made. 9. Rights and duties of citizens. 10. How 
our city or town is governed. 11. The ideal wholesale market. 
12. Frauds in marketing. 13. Play streets. 14. Value of parks. 
15. Some tests of good citizenship. 16. Compulsory schooling. 17. Care¬ 
lessness and fires. 18. Services of the local government to my family. 

19. Should the city or town provide free lunches for school children? 

20. Three ways in which a citizen may contribute to the welfare of his 
community. 21. The most useful citizen in our community. 22. What 
the health department does. 23. Keeping our city (or town) clean. 
24. Traffic problems. 

Writing Out 

After carefully planning the composition write as freely and 
rapidly as the thoughts come to your mind, without paying much 
attention to anything except the expression of the thought. 
Follow your plan, but put enough flesh on the skeleton to con¬ 
ceal the bones. Compare, illustrate, explain, prove, give specific 
instances, develop. It is wise to write the lines some distance 
apart, so as to allow space for interlining. 

Revision 

After completing the first rapid writing criticize and revise 
slowly. Ask yourself. Has my plan worked or do I need to revise 
it? Is the composition interesting? Have I achieved my purpose? 


104 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Are my paragraphs well built? How can I improve my material? 
How can I improve the expression? The small boy^s definition 
of sculpture, ^‘taking a block of marble and with a hammer and 
chisel clipping off what you don’t want,” carries a suggestion for 
writers. Going through a theme, essay, or story and clipping off 
what one doesn’t want, crossing out useless words, phrases, sen¬ 
tences, and paragraphs, is a way to improve it. Find and cor¬ 
rect the errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, 
idiom, word choice, sentence structure, and paragraph structure. 
H a word is needlessly repeated, cross it out and insert another 
word. Cross out commonplace expressions, and substitute 
specific, vigorous, or picturesque words. Stevenson, who always 
revised at least eight times, once said, ^‘To write, as I try to 
write, takes every ounce of my vitality.” 

Copying 

After thoroughly revising the composition, copy it neatly 
and legibly. Remember that a typist is rated according to the 
number of perfect letters she can turn out in a day. 

Interest 

The first business of a writer is to attract readers. Of what use 
is a scholarly and inspiring article if nobody reads it? A striking 
or challenging beginning attracts readers; a dull or commonplace 
one drives them away. If after an attractive introduction the 
writer has something to say to his chosen audience, gives specific 
details, examples, and illustrations, not just broad or vague 
generalizations, plans his article as a whole, develops the para¬ 
graphs, varies the sentence structure, chooses exact and picture¬ 
making words, and saves an important idea for the ending, his 
readers will call his article interesting or entertaining. 

Practice 6 

Write or speak the composition outlined. Aim to interest and inform. 

Unity 

Lowell says, '‘The art of writing consists in knowing what to 
leave in the inkpot.” Unity requires the rigid exclusion of facts. 


BUILDING A COMPOSITION 


105 


thoughts, allusions, and statistics that do not directly assist in the 
accomplishment of your purpose; in other words, that are not 
clearly subtopics of the main headings chosen. Ask yourself 
frequently. Is this relevant? Think of a speech or theme as a 
direct march to a definite point rather than as a ramble at will 
through woods and fields. Such details of a visit to an anthracite 



Courtesy of the Union Pacific 

Mount Hood and Lost Lake 


coal mine as trains, hotels, companions, and incidents of the 
trip have no bearing on mining engineering as a vocation and 
should be excluded from the composition planned. 

Practice 7 

THE UNITED STATES 

On one of the following topics write or speak to inform or con¬ 
vince the class. Test the paragraphs and the whole composition 





106 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


for unity. If a detailed outline is not' required, write above the 
theme the topics of the paragraphs numbered 1, 2, 3, 4. 

1. Why I am glad I am an American. 2. My duty as an American 
boy (girl). 3. How we should treat our flag. 4. A danger confronting 
our country. 5. Should the United States Congress reenact the daylight 
savings law? 6. How should the government deal with extreme radicals? 
7. Why the foreign born should become American citizens. 8. Benefits 
of an enlistment in the United States Army. 9. The usefulness of the 
United States Senate. 10. How I should like to vote in the coming 
election, and why. 11. Foreign languages in the United States. 12. A 
bit of America’s scenery. 13. An American inventor. 14. Why see 
America first? 

Coherence 

Coherence means ‘‘hanging together” and includes arrange¬ 
ment of ideas and connectives. In a coherent composition the 
first paragraph leads up to the second; the second prepares for 
the third; and paragraph connectives are used to join more firmly 
the parts. 

Arrangement 

The happenings in a story are ordinarily arranged in time 
order. The details of a picture are arranged in the order of 
observation. This is usually the space order, because after ob¬ 
serving a detail one naturally sees next a detail near the first. 
In exposition you will often place first facts necessary for an 
understanding of later paragraphs. When in doubt, begin with a 
vital topic and lead up to a climax at the end. These four types 
of arrangement are time order, space order, emphasis order, and 
necessary-facts-first order. 

Simple plans for the arrangement of material are: cause — effect; 
fact — explanation; easy — difficult; idea — action — conse¬ 
quences; disadvantages — advantages; physical — social — in¬ 
tellectual — moral; profit — duty; interesting happening — the 
big event; unnecessary — impracticable — injurious. 

Practice 8 

Supply one or more suitable topics to complete each of the 
following plans: 


BUILDING A COMPOSITION 


107 


1. Past. 2. Near. 3. Anticipation. 4. Principles. 5. Unwise. 6. 
Statement. 7. Mystery. 8. Happenings. 9. Argument for. 10. The 
need. 11. Preparations. 

Practice 9 

SCHOOL 

Arrange logically the ideas of a speech or written theme about 
school and explain the plan of arrangement. Aim to inform, 
convince, or move to action. 

1. Changes needed in our school building, rules, course of study, 
school ground. 2. What I like about our school. 3. The aims of our 
school. 4. How our school prepares for good citizenship. 5. Waste of 
time in school. 6. A well-dressed high-school girl. 7. How to prepare 
for an examination. 8. What I have gained by attending high school. 
9. Why our school should have a summer session. 10. Advantages of 
employment during the summer vacation. 11. Why be on time? 12. 
How to spend the summer vacation. 13. Are clubs and elections a waste 
of time? 14. Summary of an assembly speech. 15. How to improve 
the memory. 16. How to find information in the library. 17. Why go 
to college? 18. Should a boy or girl go in debt for a college education? 
19. Should our school organize a poster club, service league, chess club, 
debating society, parliamentary club, civics club, school bank, swimming 
club, hockey team, literary society, dramatic club, Cercle Frangais, or 
sketch club (or abolish a club now in existence)? 20. Criticism of an 
assembly speaker. 21. Causes of failure in school. 22. Should our school 
have an agricultural (or a household arts) department? 23. Does high- 
school education pay? 24. A comparison of two school courses; for ex¬ 
ample, the general and the commercial. 25. My mistakes in high school. 
26. How to earn money while in high school. 

Connectives 

Not only should paragraphs be connected in thought, but 
their relation should be made clear. Paragraph indention serves 
notice that a new topic is being discussed but does not suggest 
what the new topic has to do with the old one. Commonly the 
relation between paragraphs is shown by having a sentence at 
the end of a paragraph announce the topic of the next para¬ 
graph, by having the first sentence of a paragraph refer to the 
preceding paragraph, or by using conjunctions and connective 
phrases. One's aim should be, in the words of Barrett Wendell, 


108 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


to ‘^specify in a way which no man can mistake the exact relation 
of part to part.” Connectives are hsted in the chapter on the 
paragraph. 

Practice 10 

Bring to class five examples of skillful transition between 
paragraphs. Find them in newspaper editorials, magazine 
articles, or books. 

Clearness 

When after a careful reading you don’t understand a paragraph 
or an article, the reason probably is that the subject is too deep 
for you; the writer did not think his subject out clearly and 
thoroughly; the vocabulary is beyond you; the sentences are 
lengthy, involved, and complicated; illustrations are lacking; 
or the paragraph, article, and sentences have been built without 
plan or care. Hence to make your writing clear, select subjects 
that are suited to your readers; have clearly in mind what you 
are going to say; use words which are accurate and which your 
readers will understand; avoid complicated sentences; use ex¬ 
amples, illustrations, comparisons, contrasts, figures of speech, 
word pictures, and anecdotes; and first plan your themes and 
then build unified and coherent sentences, paragraphs, and com¬ 
positions. 

The most common cause of obscurity in compositions is a lack 
of a full and clear grasp of the subject. A woman does not begin 
to bake biscuits or bread or to broil a steak without having clearly 
in mind every step of the process. Why should any one begin to 
write without first thinking over material and planning? Other 
outstanding causes of confusion and ambiguity are the choice of 
inexact words and the use of pronouns without definite antecedents. 

Practice 11 

SCHOOL SUBJECTS 

Write or speak clearly on one of these subjects. Say something. 

1. Why study English, Latin, mathematics, French, general science, 
stenography, history, typewriting, physics, chemistry, or another subject? 


BUILDING A COMPOSITION 


109 


2. Why I like history, French, or any other subject. 3. Asecretary’s report 
of a class in English, history, or some other subject. 4. What one learns 
from physical geography, biology, botany, or another subject. 5. Which 
high-school subjects are of most value? Why? 6. Is it better to study 
alone or with a classmate? 7. Helpful study rules. 8. Benefits derived 
from the physical-training work. 9. My faults in writing and speaking. 

10. How to study a lesson in history, Latin, mathematics, or spelling. 

11. Value of debating. 12. Why learn to draw? 13. The use of the out¬ 
line. 14. How to plan a composition. 15. Comparative value of oral 
and written composition. 16. The value of supplementary reading. 
17. An interesting recitation. 18. How to write a good narration. 19. 
Why revise a composition after the first writing? 20. The practical 
value of physics. 21. Difficulties in learning French, Spanish, or another 
language. 

Emphasis 

In forceful discourse striking features or points have promi¬ 
nence, and details are kept in due subordination, or omitted. 
The important idea is put in an emphatic place and given more 
space or time than the less important. The end is the most 
emphatic position, because final impressions last longest. When 
a mother who is going out gives instructions for the care of the 
house, she is likely to keep till last, “And don’t forget to put the 
windows down if it rains,” to impress this point. The beginning 
of a composition is second in importance, because few people 
read articles that have dull beginnings. In a composition on 
“The Qualities of a Successful Mining Engineer,” for example, 
the most important topic, “Moral Qualities,” is placed last and 
given more space than any other topic. 

Pkactice 12 

1. Which of the two themes is more emphatic? Why? 

2. Which has better sentence structure? Give examples. 

3. Which excels in word choice? Prove. 

1. GIVING TO BEGGARS 

1. A childhood experience 

2. Reasons for giving to beggars 

One sultry afternoon as I was making my way through a large crowd 
in Syracuse, New York, I happened to notice a beggarly looking man 


no 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


about sixty years old. He was sitting on the sidewalk in front of a 
large department store on Selina Street. Unfortunately, besides being 
blind, he was deformed—one leg being much shorter than the other. 
Across his lap lay a pair of crutches, and beside him sat a hungry look¬ 
ing little dog, about six months old. 

As I went past, I looked into the cup which he was holding, and there 
was not a penny in it. I did not have much money with me, and I was 
very much undecided as to whether I should help him. I walked on down 
the street, however, but my conscience seemed to tell me I had done 
wrong. Returning to the old man’s side, I dropped a dime into the 
cup. Lifting his head upward he repeated a prayer which could barely 
be distinguished above the noises of the city. 

That afternoon something very peculiar happened to me as I stepped 
into Keith’s Theater. As I looked downward, my eyes fell upon a dollar 
bill lying on the floor. I picked it up and explained the situation to the 
cashier. She told me to mention it when I came out again, and if no 
one inquired about it, the money was mine. I did, and sure enough the 
money was mine. . . . 

Could it be that God repaid me for helping the beggar, or was it just 
an accident that I found the money?— Pupil’s Theme 

2. GIVING TO BEGGARS 

1. House-to-house beggars sometimes deserving 

2. Street-corner beggars commonly impostors 

3. Proper treatment of street-beggars 

Very often, especially during the summer months, woe-begone indi¬ 
viduals come to the door and very humbly ask, not for money, but for 
food. Some of these applicants are undoubtedly deserving of assistance 
and should be helped. 

The street-corner beggars are, however, an entirely different proposi¬ 
tion. As a general rule, they are professional beggars and derive a good in¬ 
come from their business. They are quite likely to be extremely profane 
when passed by several people together who do not deposit any offering 
in the tin cup suggestively shaken before them. These beggars are, 
more often than not, rank impostors. This is illustrated by a supposedly 
blind street-beggar in Newark who struck with a cane a girl of my ac¬ 
quaintance and “hoped she’d get her nice new dress spoilt,” because 
she did not give him any money. Cases very similar to this are often re¬ 
ported and prove that a great number of these supplicants are “fakers.” 
Moreover we often read in the paper of beggars who have died and left 
comfortable fortunes gained without work. One New York beggar has 
a suite at a good hotel, owns an automobile, and employs a chauffeur. 

For these reasons I consider the street-beggars parasites of the worst 


BUILDING A COMPOSITION 


111 


kind and do not believe in giving to them. Rather let them be locked 
up when found begging; and if they prove to be really deserving, then 
let them be cared for at the institutions maintained by the taxpayers 
for this purpose. Surely their pride cannot be hurt by attendance at 
one of the public almshouses, and the general pubHc will be greatly 
relieved.— Pupil’s Theme 

Practice 13 

MANNERS AND ETHICS 

Write forcefully on one of these topics: 

1. Are the American people amusement-crazy? 2. What do we owe 
to our associates? 3. ‘‘The real issue is the eternal struggle between 
these two principles—right and wrong.” Apply the quotation to condi¬ 
tions today. 4. An everyday hero—policeman, engineer, or laborer. 
5. Responsibility of older students for the younger boys and girls of the 
school. 6. The essentials of good breeding. 7. How to form and how 
to break a habit. 8. Why some boys grow up selfish. 9. How to culti¬ 
vate determination. 10. Relics of barbarism in school. 11. Pluck or 
pull. 12. What is liberty? 13. Is it sensible to make New Year’s reso¬ 
lutions? Why? 14. Wliat is success? 15. The kind of boy or girl I 
admire. 16. What will people say? 17. Lending or borrowing home¬ 
work. 18. Courtesy at home, on the playground, in the schoolroom, in 
the street car, in the theater, in the use of the telephone, at church, at 
the table, at a party, or while on a visit. 19. What is conscience? Is 
conscience always a safe guide? 20. Is the Golden Rule a safe guide? 
21. Honesty in sports. 22. Value of good manners. 

Introduction 

The palatial house has a large entrance hall; the small house, 
none or a tiny one. A long composition needs a direct, interesting 
introduction to define terms, explain circumstances, state the 
proposition or subject to be discussed, or make clear the plan. 
A short composition may need an introductory sentence. A safe 
rule is to cross out the introduction if it doesn’t help the reader 
or hearer. 

Conclusion 

The last paragraph is commonly a summary or enforcement 
of an important idea. It may be used to repeat the chief points, 
to remove doubts, to explain difficulties, to enlist sympathy, to 


112 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


strengthen conviction, or to emphasize an important point. 
The last sentence should be so phrased that it will linger in the 
hearers’ minds. A brief speech or short written theme needs no 
conclusion or just a sentence to enforce the main point. Don’t 
feel that you must say something after you have said everything 
you have to say. 


Pkactice 14 

For a 300 to 500 word composition on the subject ^^My Library” 
which of the introductory paragraphs is best? Why? Which of 
the concluding paragraphs is best? Why? 

INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPHS 

1 

To a casual observer my bookcase must seem like a hodgepodge of 
books with absolutely no arrangement as to size. For me this motley 
array presents the fruits of much time, thought, and work. My books 
I acquired by hook or by crook. Some I inherited from father’s and 
mother’s sets. Some I rooted out of old packing cases. Others I bought 
myself, but most were gifts. On the bottom shelf (the one I consult 
only when necessary) I have placed my Encydopcedic Dictionary, Experi¬ 
mental Science, Dictionary of Scientific Names, and various other prosaic 
volumes. The shelf above contains interesting books on my studies. 
My Darwin (I have the whole set), my bird lore, insect book, flora and 
fauna, zoologies, and a beginner’s Greek book rub elbows with similar 
volumes on chemistry, physiography, and the writing of poetry (I never 
read the book). The shelf above contains my classics, Shakespeare, 
Hugo, Dickens, Hawthorne, and others of sterling worth. The next and 
top shelf contains a conglomeration of dilapidated novels and interesting 
light stories. Red-covered Seventeen reposes in the shadow of huge Alic^ 
in Wonderland. Quo Vadis is tucked between The Light That Failed and 
The Wandering Jew. London’s adventures gayly huddle at the right 
with The Sketch Book. Each is on famihar terms with his neighbor. 

2 

“Good books are friends of the mind and heart, comrades in joy and 
sorrow, counselors in times of problems, and guides in days of bewilder¬ 
ment and doubt. Their treasures have never been exhausted.” These 
words of a noted book lover express the feeling of every book lover. How 
much joy there is in owning our own copies of favorite stories, volumes 


BUILDING A COMPOSITION 


113 


that we may read again and again whenever we wish. Many people say 
that we can get all our reading matter from the public library; but these 
books are transient guests, while our own are permanent friends. 

3 

There, in one corner of our living room, is built into the wall a case, 
not more than five feet high and seven feet wide, in which my world is 
situated—my silent world. Into that rather small space are condensed 
the seas, the lands, the heavens—the entire universe. There the learn¬ 
ing of centuries is to be found. There vivid romances, some real, others 
imaginative, are taking place. There great battles are fought and great 
voyages taken. Yes, there I have my world, the large world condensed. 
There my library stands. 

CONCLUDING PARAGRAPHS 

1 

Although I treasure every book in my library, there is one that is 
really and truly precious to me. It is The Ruler of the Kingdom by Grace 
Keon. The book itself is not the cause of the endearment, but the fact 
that it is autographed by the author means more to me than words 
can express. 

2 

From what has gone before, one might consider my library very small 
and limited, and so it is. One of my greatest aims is to have a collection 
of books of which I can be proud. In the future I hope and intend to 
make substantial additions to my library. First I should like to have 
a good set of history books. In these, of course, would be included 
Wells’s The Outline of History. Then I should get the works of some of 
our best Enghsh and French writers—Dickens, Thackeray, Stevenson, 
George Eliot, Jane Austen, Hugo, Dumas, for example. After these I 
should want some of the modern writers. In this class would be included 
Kiphng, Conrad, Galsworthy, Frost, and Morley. I have come to the 
conclusion, however, that by the time I have made all these desired 
additions to my library, I shall be old, gray, and penniless. 

3 

There is, however, more to a library than simply possessing it. Some 
one has said that books are our best friends—but what are friends if we 
are not acquainted with them? Up to date I have read only a small 
proportion of my four hundred books. I hope, nevertheless, that some day 
I shall have read practically every volume. 


114 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Practice 15 

Read carefully the following pupil theme and then write on 
one of the following subjects. In your thinking, planning, writing, 
revising, and copying carry out all the suggestions in this chapter. 

1. My library. 2. My hbrary to be (or as I would like it). 3. My 
library present and future. 

MY LIBRARY TO BE 

1. My present library 

2. Books for a snowy, windy afternoon 

3. Poetry for three a.m. 

4. Books for bright, breezy summer days 

5. Psychological novels and plays 

6. Ending the enumeration 

7. The inner lives of people 

8. Desire not to be simply an absorber 

Enumerated exactly, the main part of my library at present consists 
of one intermediate algebra, one Latin grammar and syllabus, a weighty 
volume on modern European history, a rhetoric, and several smaller books 
on various subjects of interest and otherwise—mostly otherwise. To 
any person covetous of my library I am glad to say that on my escape 
from this institution of learning I shall gladly bequeath these books to 
other eager hands. 

For my future hbrary is to be of an entirely different nature. In it 
there will be books such as one would select to read on a snowy, windy 
afternoon, when one is curled up in front of a cracking fire munching a 
crisp, red apple—books such as Treasure Island, Innocents Abroad, Pick¬ 
wick Papers, Tartarin of Tarascon, Kim, Across the Plains, Robinson 
Crusoe, A Tale of Two Cities, and aU such colorful, picturesque, and red- 
blooded volumes. What a contrast to my present library! It is difficult 
to imagine any one curling up luxuriously before the hearth with a copy 
of the Latin syllabus open to his fascinated gaze. 

Then there are going to be slim volumes of the type of poetry one 
longs to read at three in the morning, after every one else has retired, 
and there is no danger of an inquisitive and irritated mother poking her 
head into the room to inquire about the needless expenditure of electricity. 
In the aristocratic volumes that I have mentioned, there will be only 
such poems as can be read again and again, gaining a new and inexpli¬ 
cable charm with each reading—poems such as The Song of Songs, Salt 
Water Ballads, Sara Teasdale’s finer lyrics, Vachel Lindsay’s ^‘jazzed” 
and syncopated poetry, Joseph Auslander’s sincere and moving poems, 


BUILDING A COMPOSITION 


115 


and—oh, hundreds of others. Again, how different from my present 
books! Somehow it is hard to visualize myself creeping cautiously from 
bed at three a.m. to get my intermediate algebra. 

Moreover there must be books to read when one is lying under the 
trees on bright, breezy summer days—books like The Admirable Crichton, 
Cyrano de Bergerac, Caesar and Cleopatra, The Happy Prince, At the 
Back of the North Wind, and in fact aU such clever plays and delicate 
fairy tales. 

These for airy summer! For bitter, gloomy moments, on the other 
hand, I intend to have a shelf of books that are full of almost divine 
compassion and S 3 nnpathy for the human race. On this shelf will be 
Anatole France’s Human Tragedy, Gorki’s Creatures That Once Were 
Men, Tolstoy’s Ivan Ilyitch, Andreyev’s Seven That Were Hanged, and 
many other such volumes. In the darkest, most dismal corner of the 
bookcase will be Schopenhauer’s Studies in Pessimism. I guarantee that 
if you aren’t gloomy when you start reading this book, you will be when 
you get through. 

To read during hours when I am feeling interested in psychology, 
I will keep such books as Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard, James’s Daisy 
Miller, Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frame, Booth Tarkington’s Alice Adams, 
Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, and other penetrating, understanding novels 
and plays. 

Goodness, how my bookcase is expanding! And I have just begun. 
It is evident that it is useless to go farther in my enumeration. 

However, although books play so large a part in my life, I don’t intend 
to keep my library entirely on shelves. I hope to be able to read the 
inner lives of people about me as the most interesting novels to be found. 
I expect to find psychology, philosophy, wit, and dramatic action in my 
daily contacts with fellow human beings. I know that I shall find poetry 
in the lively streets of the city, in the green fields of the country, in the 
fiying clouds of the heavens, and in the concealed thoughts and emotions 
of all people, however coarse and hardened these people may appear 
when viewed superficially. 

It is my earnest hope that I may keep myself from becoming simply 
an absorber of thinking people’s thoughts, and that I may, on the con¬ 
trary, become able to see things through eyes not unduly clouded with 
second-hand impressions.— Pupil’s Theme 

Pkactice 16 

In New York the fourth-year English Regents examination 
commonly calls for the writing of a composition of 300 or 400 
words. The following topics are taken from recent Regents 


116 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


question papers. Write an outline and a theme of at least 300 
words on one of the topics. In your revision ask yourseK these 
questions: 

1. Will the composition arouse the interest of others? 

2. Do I begin on the subject without delay? 

3. Do I stick to the subject? 

4. Is my purpose achieved? 

6. Have I followed instructions? 

6. Have I an effective ending? 

7. Does each paragraph follow the preceding naturally and logically? 

8. Are transition phrases or sentences used to guide the reader? 

9. Have I given extra space to my most important ideas and placed 
them in emphatic positions? 

10. Have I enough examples, illustrations, comparisons, contrasts, 
specific details, and picture-making expressions to make my points clear? 

11. Are the paragraphs well built? 

12. Are the sentences, varied? 

13. Are there mistakes in sentence structure, use of idioms, punctua¬ 
tion, capitalization, spelling, or other matters of technic? 

(1) The kind of speaker I like to hear. Try to recall the best speaker 
you have ever heard. Analyze the secret of his (or her) effectiveness. 
Such questions as these may assist you to plan your composition: What 
are the essentials of a good speech? What means does a good speaker 
employ to gain and keep the interest of his audience? To make his mean¬ 
ing clear? To convince? Use illustrations from actual speeches that 
you have heard. 

(2) Reading the newspaper. On the basis of your experience and ob¬ 
servation give the best advice you can as to profitable and unprofitable 
ways of reading the daily paper. Consider such questions as these: 
Should we read everything in the paper or select some articles and ignore 
others? Do people waste time over the daily paper? Are headlines a 
help or a hindrance? Should a reader believe all he reads? What would 
be the effect on the mind of reading nothing but the daily press? Other 
topics will occur to you. Select carefully the topics you will develop; 
then plan and write a theme. 

(3) Popularity. Washington Irving says, “The hero of today pushes 
the idol of yesterday out of our recollection and he will in turn be sup¬ 
planted by his successor of tomorrow.’’ 

Show from your own observation or from history the truth or falsity 
of this statement, using specific illustrations to prove your points and 
discussing the achievements of the persons whom you choose as illus¬ 
trations. 


BUILDING A COMPOSITION 


117 


(4) College versus travel as a means of education. Suppose that on your 
graduation from high school you wiU come into possession of a sum of 
money sufficient to give you one year of college or one year of travel. 
For which purpose would you use the money? Which do you think 
would be more pleasurable and which more profitable? Which do you 
think wpuld help you more in later life? Justify your choice by giving 
knowledge gained from your own experience or from what you have heard. 

(5) A plea for rainy days. Write a defense of unpopular weather. 
Consider such questions as these: What is usually said against the rainy 
day? Why is it disliked? What are its charms? What moods does it 
create in us? From what annoyances does it protect us? What are its 
most enjoyable pastimes? 

(6) The best way to spend old age. Some people grow old gracefully 
and some do not. By recalling to mind old people whom you have seen 
—some happy, some unhappy; some agreeable, some disagreeable— 
decide what are some of the enduring satisfactions of life; what interests 
and ambitions remain attractive beyond youth; what are habits to avoid 
and courtesies to cultivate for the sake of old age; what things make 
old age tragic. 

(7) What makes a well-read person. Consider such questions as these: 
Should you prefer to be known as one who reads widely or as one who 
reads thoroughly and with discrimination, as one who reads everything 
or as one who reads only the best? Should an educated person read 
various types of literature, such as modern books, older classics, maga¬ 
zines, and newspapers? 

(8) Why I am glad to live in the present age or Why I wish I had lived 
in some definite earlier age. Weigh carefully the advantages and dis¬ 
advantages of life at the present time or in that earlier age. Visualize 
just how people live or lived. State two or three important reasons for 
preferring the present or the past; then give the best evidence you can 
to convince others that your reasons are good. 

(9) Science in modern life. Has the development of science made life 
more simple or more complex? Is there a vital need for a wider knowledge 
of science? May scientific knowledge be emphasized too much? How 
does science actually contribute to life? 

(10) How I shall use my leisure hours. To spend leisure well is the art 
of living. You have observed people who use their freedom intelligently 
and others who use it unintelligently. Thinking of such examples, write 
your opinion of the kinds of activity and pastime most worth cultivation 
during your leisure. Do not write about plans for vacation days during 
your next few years, but consider the prospect of a normally long life 
and the ways of spending its hours of freedom from work and duty. 

(11) My greatest fear. Most human beings are especially afraid of 


118 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


something—snakes, thunder and lightning, the dark, disease, and so 
forth. Have you a pet fear? Do you think it is a reasonable or a foolish 
fear? Can you trace the origin of this pet fear to experiences in your 
childhood? Have you noted similar fears in other people? What plan 
would you advise for conquering tendencies to foolish terror? 

Practice 17 

Write the composition for which you gathered material while study¬ 
ing Chapter I. Apply what you have learned about building a para¬ 
graph and a composition. 


CHAPTER VIII 


THE LETTER 
BUSINESS LETTER 
Why Learn to Write Business Letters? 

The business letter is the backbone of business. Because time, 
distance, and expense often prevent men’s doing business with 
each other face to face, a business man needs to know how to 
write a letter which will have a personal touch and will somehow 
appeal to the particular man written to. To know what he wants 
to say is not enough. ^‘The vehicle of expression,” says a pub- 
hsher, ^^even from the purely business standpoint, is quite as 
important as the thing said.” 

Promptness 

A business letter calls for a prompt reply. Delay often means 
loss of business or an opportunity. Most successful executives 
try to clear their desks each day before leaving their offices. 

Open Punctuation 


28 Broad Street 

Washington, New Jersey 
December 2, 1930 

The,Radio Electric Company 
Ninth Street and Broadway . 

New York City 

Gentlemen: 


Yours truly, 

{Miss) Grace Glidden 


119 





120 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Parts of a Business Letter 


The six parts needed in every business letter are heading, 
address, salutation, body, complimentary close, and signature. 


Close Punctuation 


Mrs. Samuel Warner, 
1024 Wabash Avenue, 
Chicago, Illinois. 

Dear Madam: 


114 Sunset Avenue, 
Utica, New York, 
December 4, 1930. 


Yours very truly, 

J, G, Phillips 


Block Style 

{Not recommended for handwritten letters) 


1013 Baltimore Avenue 
Kansas City, Missouri 
December 12, 1930 

Mr. James Stern, President 
Union National Bank 
62 West Fourteenth Street 
St. Louis, Missouri 

Dear Sir: 


Very truly yours. 

Jay Electric Company 

by M, J. Williams 










THE LETTER 


121 


Letter Form Model 

(The firm uses a letterhead. The letter is dictated and has one inclosure. 
The writer addresses it to a particular member of the firm and announces 
in advance the subject of the letter. Most correspondents omit the letter 
subject.) 



BROADWAY PRESS 


Letterhead 

PRINTING AND ENGRAVING 



9 Willoughby Street 



Brooklyn, New York 



January 2, 1930 

Date 


E. P. Lee & Co. Subject: Program 

Letter 

Address 

115 Devonshire Street 

subject 


Boston, Massachusetts 


Salutation 

Gentlemen: Attention of Mr. Duell 

Particular 



address 

Body 




Very truly yours. 

Complimentary 


Broadway Press 

close 


F. H. Gaines 

Signature 

Dictator and 

FG/SM Manager 


typist 

Inc. 


Inclosure 




Heading 

1. The heading contains the writer’s address and the date, 
and begins about halfway across the paper an inch or two from 
the top. 

2. It may occupy one, two, or three hnes. If two or three Unes 
are used, the date stands alone on the last one. When a letter¬ 
head is used, the date is written or typed at the right or in the 
center. 

3. In a pen-written letter each fine begins farther to the right 
than the preceding; in a typewritten letter the second and third 
lines may begin under the first. 

4. Notice in the illustrations the two common systems of 
punctuation, open and close. A mixture is wrong. If a comma is 







122 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 



D. C. Heath and Company 

Publishers of Text Books for Schools and Colleges 
231-245 West 39th Street 
New York 


THC UNIVERSITY Of THE STATE OF NEW YORK 
Orricc or thc Pkcsiocnt otthc Univcrsitv 

AND COMMISSIONCA Of COVCATION 
ALBANY 


TiktrHONi I OuxNyoAi 0690 

Cefartmbnt op Eoucatibn 

THK CITY OF NEW YORK 

THOMAS JCFFERBON HlOH SCHOOL 

ELIAS LIESERMAN. PAINCIFAb 


American Employment Exchange 

11 WEST 42*iE STREET 150 BROADWAY 

CKickerlnq 7801 Rector 6868 

"i/Ve-w 

placed after the first line of three, the comma after the second 
and period after the third are necessary. In open punctuation 
no mark is placed after any line unless it ends with an abbreviation, 

5. Although the name of the state may be abbreviated, the 
growing tendency is not to abbreviate. The name of the month 
should not be abbreviated. Abbreviate as httle as possible. 

6. The name of a numbered street or avenue is, as a rule, 
spelled out unless it is two or more words. 


















THE LETTER 123 

{Right) 150 Fifth Avenue; 249 East 168th Street; 249 East 168 
Street; 12 Fifteenth Street. 

Address 

1. The name and address of the firm written to are placed at 
the left-hand margin just below the heading, rarely at the end of 
the letter. 

2. The arrangement and punctuation must follow the system of 
the heading. If the heading has no punctuation after lines and a 
sloping margin, don’t change in the address. 

3. Use the proper title. To the name of an unmarried woman 
Miss is prefixed; of a married woman or widow, Mrs.; of a lad. 
Master; of a man without special title, Mr. (with its plural Messrs.). 
Instead of Mr., Esq. after the name is frequently used. Reverend 
is the title of a clergyman; Dr. of one who holds the doctorate 
degree; Professor, of one who has attained the rank of professor 
in a college or university. Honorable stands before the name of a 
cabinet officer, a senator, a congressman, an ambassador, a gover¬ 
nor, a judge, or a mayor. 

Although Rev., Hon., and Prof, are permissible abbreviations, 
it is better to write the words out. Rev. or Reverend is used with 
the full name, not with the last name only: Rev. J. G. White, not 
Rev. White. 

The is commonly used before the title of a high official. 

The Honorable Franklin D. Roosevelt 
President of the United States 

Messrs, is used before the name of a law firm; for example, 
Messrs. Hughes and Haskins, but not before the name of any other 
kind of firm or corporation. The is used before a corporation 
name that does not contain individual names: The National 
Biscuit Company. 

Avoid double titles. 

{Wrong)Mi. E. J. Stenson, Esq. 

Rev. Mr. H. B. Laird 

{Right) Mr. E. J. Stenson 
E. J. Stenson, Esq. 

Reverend H. B. Laird 


124 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Salutation 


1. Business salutations are— 


Dear Sir: 

My dear Sir: 

Dear Mr. Hawkins: 
My dear Mr. Page: 


Gentlemen: 

Ladies: or Mesdames: 
Dear Madam: 

My dear Madam: 


In a letter to a person ycu know, use Dear Dr. Scott or Dear Mrs. 
Leonard, not Dear Sir or Dear Madam. Sir is used in a letter to 
the president, vice president, or a cabinet officer, and may be 
used in addressing a congressman, senator, judge, governor, or 
another high official. 

2. Begin the salutation at the margin. 

3. Use a colon after the salutation. 

4. The first word and all nouns are capitafized. 


Body 


1. Indent all paragraphs ahke. Don’t make the first paragraph 
an exception. 

2. Good English is good business English. Vary the sentence 
length. The short simple sentence is emphatic but usually not so 
precise as the longer complex sentence. 

3. A good business letter is correct, clear, complete, accurate, 
courteous, and concise. Have clearly in mind what you wish to 
say and express your ideas exactly and fully in simple, direct 
language. As a rule, confine a letter to one subject. Clearness 
requires also a separate paragraph for each idea. Because short 
paragraphs are easier to read than long ones, paragraphs in busi¬ 
ness correspondence are shorter than in a book chapter or a maga¬ 
zine article. They should not average more than sixty words and 
should seldom exceed one hundred. 

4. The first sentence is especially important. It should arouse 
interest and create a favorable impression by telling the reader 
something he wishes to know, and may refer in a definite and 
original way to the letter to which it is a reply. Notice these 
beginnings: 


THE LETTER 


125 


We have asked our representative, Mr. S. J. Tucker, to see that your 
cash register is put in proper working order at once. Thank you very 
much for reporting this matter on your card of November 10. 

A duplicate shipment of the bedroom set, which you won in the Spring 
Contest, has been ordered. 

5e Because the last sentence also occupies an important posi¬ 
tion, it should be clean-cut and complete. Avoid the participial 
conclusion beginning with hoping^ trustingj believing, thanking, or 
regretting. And oblige is obsolete. Don’t insert We beg to remain, 
We remain, or I am before the complimentary close. 

Aim to clinch your point and bring the reader ^‘over to your 
side.” Add a few friendly words if you can. 

Examples: 

We thank you for placing the order with us and hope the shipment will 
arrive promptly. 

As it is necessary for us to have this information, won’t you please 
telephone to us the first thing tomorrow morning. 

6. Conciseness requires that the writer courteously make his 
point in the fewest possible words. ^Tt has always been the habit 
of greatness to say much in little.” Don’t, however, omit such 
necessary words as the subject, the verb, articles, or prepositions. 
A business letter is not a telegram. Instead of Received your 
letter, say I received your letter. Business men now avoid the 
hackneyed expressions which were correct in the days of our 
grandfathers. 

(Old-fashioned) 

a. Your esteemed favor of the 30th ult. is at hand; are sorry that the 
twenty pounds of White House coffee have not arrived. 

b. Yours of recent date received and contents carefully noted and 
in reply to same would say that your order was shipped on December 10th. 

Co Enclosed herewith please find — 

d. Regretting our inability to serve you along these lines, we beg 
to remain — 

(Better) 

a. We regret to learn from your letter of November 30 that you have 
not received the twenty pounds of White House coffee. 


126 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


6. We are glad to find that the order about which you inquired in 
your letter of December 14 was shipped on December 10. 

c. I inclose — 

d. We regret that our stock of Humphrey Hadiantfires is exhausted.. 

7. The secret of success in letter writing and salesmanship is 
putting yourself in the other fellow’s place. This is called the 

spirit” or ^‘getting on the other fellow’s side of the fence.” 
See the face of the recipient as you dictate or write. Hear in 
imagination what he has to say after each sentence as he reads. 
Make the letter talkative, and talk with the person, not at him. 
Cross out Ij we, my, and our, and insert you and your. Remember 
that courtesy is politeness, plus kindness. The Correspondence 
Manual of the Stanley Works, New Britain, Connecticut, says, 
“Then before you sign your name to a letter ask yourself, Would 
this letter suitably answer me if I were in the customer’s place?’ ” 

8. It is better to use no abbreviations except Mr., Mrs., Messrs., 
Dr., St. (Saint), D.C., A.M., P.M., Y.M.C.A., C.O.D., B.C., and 
A.D. Do not use etc. if you can avoid it. 

9. When preparing to write a reply, read thoroughly the letter 
you are answering, think what kind of man the writer is, decide 
what you wish to accomplish with the reply, thien plan your letter. 

10. Write January 19, not January 19th or January nine¬ 
teenth. Use figures also for house numbers and page numbers. 

11. Use freely such courteous expressions as thank you, please, 
we are glad, it is a pleasure, and such positive words as confidence, 
success, enjoy, achieve, approve, energetic, substantial, attractive, 
genuine, happy, trustworthy, and straightforward. Use sparingly 
such negative words as complaint, misunderstanding, grievance, 
trouble, delay, mistake, and inconvenience. 

Practice 1 

To the brief list of positive words useful in letter writing add 
others that have warmth and color. 

Practice 2 

For the following stereotyped or old-fashioned expressions sub¬ 
stitute fresh, terse, conversational ones. If necessary, supply 
information to complete the sentence. 


THE LETTER 


127 


1. In reply to your esteemed favor we wish to advise you that we are 
handing you herewith the circular requested. 

2. Kindly deliver the same at an early date. 

3. Enclosed please find as per your request an itemized bill. 

4. Thanking you in advance for suggestions along this line and awaiting 
your further favors, we remain. 

5. Your kind order has come to hand, and same shall receive attention 
at the earliest possible moment. 

6. Your valued favor is at hand and in reply would say that our Mr. 
Johnson will call on you next Thursday. 

7. Not having received your check up to this writing, I beg to state 
that I am sorry to trouble you but hope you will send it at your earliest 
convenience. 

8. Kindly send the check by return mail, and oblige. 

9. Your complaint of recent date rec’d and contents carefully noted 
and in reply would state for your information that the shoes were shipped 
on January 14. 

10. Trusting this will prove satisfactory, we beg to remain. 

Complimentary Close 

1. The complimentary close may be— 

Yours truly. Very truly yours, 

Truly yours. Yours very truly, 

Respectfully yours and Yours respectfully are sometimes used in 
letters to superiors; for example, a student to his principal, the 
board of education, or the governor. A business letter to an 
acquaintance may close with Cordially yours. Sincerely yours, 
Yours cordially, or Yours sincerely. 

2. Place a comma after the complimentary close. 

3. Capitalize the first word only of the complimentary close. 

4. Begin the complimentary close about halfway across the 
page. 

Signature 

1. The signature is placed below the complimentary close and 
begins farther to the right in slant style and directly underneath 
the first word of the complimentary close in block style. 

2. A period is not necessary after the signature but may be 
used if the period is used after the address and the heading. 


128 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Very tnily yours^ 

THE 

Vice-President 

WCR.Ojr 


Any one person may carry all three accounts if desired. The ac¬ 
counts may be opened personally or by mail. We hope you v/ill 
decide to do business with us soon. 

Sincerely yours, 

Manager 

P3S:MP Hew Business Department 




3. Write the signature legibly. Typewritten letters frequently 
have the signature both typed and pen-written. 

4. A woman addressing a stranger should make clear what title 
he should use in the reply. 

Unmarried woman: (Miss) Catherine Thompson 

Married woman: Catherine Thompson 

(Mrs. James Thompson) 

Widow who wishes to use her own name: Mrs. Catherine Thompson 

5. In a letter from a firm, if the letterhead does not show the 
writer’s position, the signature should make this clear. 


Practice 3 

Write the heading, address, salutation, complimentary close, 
and signature of each letter: 

1. Henrietta Wilson (wife of John Wilson), 382 Pennsylvania Street, 
Buffalo, New York, writes to E. H. Black, Esquire, Chicago Theological 
Seminary, 45 Warren Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. 












THE LETTER 


129 


2. Andrew King, president of Thomson and Company, 297 Wash¬ 
ington Street, Buffalo, New York, writes to Hare & Smith, Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania. 

3. H. J. Moss, manager of Olney and Warren, 297 Lafayette Street, 
San Francisco, California, writes to Henry C. Brewer, United States 
Senate, Washington, D. C. 

4. From your home address write to Mrs. Henry Jameson, registrar 
of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. 

Letter Picture 

Because first impressions are important, a newspaper pays 
particular attention to the make-up of its front page, and a busi¬ 
ness man chooses a salesman who dresses well and has good man¬ 
ners. For the same reason he selects a secretary or a typist whose 
letters are accurately transcribed and clearly and attractively 
arranged. Most typewritten letters are single-spaced, except for 
double-spacing between the parts and the paragraphs. In a 
letter so typed, if the heading and address are in the block form, 
paragraphs may begin flush with the margin. Many business 
men, however, think that the indention makes the paragraph 
division clearer and prefer to have all paragraphs indented. 

A letter is a more pleasing picture if it is centered on the page. 
To accomplish this, the typist, when using regular business sta¬ 
tionery, leaves a margin of an inch and a half on the right and on 
the left, takes pains to keep the right margin even, and leaves a 
margin of at least an inch at the bottom of the page. If the letter 
is short, the margins are two inches wide, and the spaces above 
and below the letter are approximately equal. On paper with a 
letterhead, the space above the letter is between the letterhead 
and the address. Short letters are sometimes double-spaced. 

Paper and Folding 

Paper, ink, and envelopes of good quality add distinction to 
correspondence. Use regularly white, heavy paper 8J4 by 11 
inches in size. For a short letter, paper about 6 by inches in 
size may be substituted. Select an envelope that matches the 
paper, is strong enough to stand rough handling, and is heavy 
enough to prevent the writing showing through. 


130 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


To fold a sheet by 11 inches, first place the lower half X 
over the upper half F with the lower edge a quarter or a half inch 
from the upper edge. Then over the center C fold in turn from 
the right and the left A and B, each slightly less than one-third of 
the folded sheet. Place the letter in the envelope with the loose 
edges D E up and next to the flap. Put the inclosures inside the 
letter or between the letter and the envelope address. 


D 



When for a short letter paper 6 by 93^ inches is used, fold the 
lower third up and the top quarter down. Place the letter in the 
envelope ^Vith the two flaps next to the back, not the face, of 
the envelope and with the top edge of the letter at the bottom of 
the envelope.’’ 



Reference Data, Inclosures, and Postscript 

A business letter should show who dictated it and who typed it. 
In the model on page 49, FG are the initials of the dictator, and 
SM, of the typist. This might be FG: SM, FG-SM, or fg/sm, 
A notation at the left-hand margin below these initials refers 
to inclosures, if there are any. The common forms are: 

^ Inclosures 
Inc, 



























THE LETTER 


131 


A postscript with or without P. S. may call attention to an 
especially important fact: “A specially handsome three-quarter 
leather edition of O. Henry costs only a few cents more per volume. 
See the order card.^’ 

The Second Page 

The second page of a long letter should not have a letterhead. 
The name of the recipient and the page are commonly placed in 
the upper right-hand corner: F. W. Truxton 2. 

On the last page there should be at least three lines of the body 
of the letter. 

Envelope Address and Return Card 

1. The margin, straight or slant, and the punctuation, open or 
close, should correspond with that of the letter. 

2. Simphfy the work of the post-office department and make 
sure that the letter arrives by writing the complete address legibly. 
Abbreviation of the name of the state is the cause of many lost 
letters. 

3. Fix the stamp securely in its proper place. A stamp diag¬ 
onally across the corner of the envelope is evidence of haste, 
carelessness, or freakishness. 


Open Punctuation, Block Style 


James C. Trask 

110 South Salina Street 

Syracuse, N. Y. 

STAMP 

Professor W. C. Tanner 


Columbia University 


116th Street 


New York City 






132 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Close Punctuation, Slant Style 


After five days return to 
John Flood, 116 Main Street, 
Hackettstown, New Jersey. 



The Appliance Company, 

1104 South Wabash Avenue, 
Chicago, 

Illinois. 


Hundred Per Cent Test 

For typed letters the punctuation, capitalization, wording, and 
arrangement of five of the following are correct, and five incorrect. 
On your answer paper write the numbers of the five correct ones. 


1. 160 Tuxedo Avenue 

Detroit, Michigan 
January 4, 1930 

Miss Helen F. Kendrick, Principal 
Oakhurst School for Girls 
723 Oak Street 
Cincinnati, Ohio 

Dear Madam: 


2 . Blue Ridge, North Carolina 

Feb. 4, 1930 

Messrs. Gates, Hepburn & Company 
Chicago, Illinois 

Dear Sirs:— 


3 . IIT' Jefferson Street, 

Warrenton, Virginia, 
June 6, 1930. 

D.C. Heath and Company 
285 Columbus Avenue 
Boston, Massachusetts 

Gentlemen: 











THE LETTER 


133 


4 . 


Messrs. Baldwin and Root 
Attorneys-at-law 

302 Yamhill Street 
Portland, Oregon 

Gentlemen: 


249 Fourth Street 

Sweetwater, Tennessee 
January 4, 1931 


5 . 585 Holly Avenue 

Jan. 10, 1931 

St. Paul, Minnesota 

Miss Ada S. Blake 

Principal of Marborough School for Girls 
5029 West Third Street 
Los Angeles, California. 

Dear Miss Blake: 


6 . 


217 Elm Street 

Lake Forest, Illinois 
May 10, 1931 


Registrar of the University of Illinois 
Urbana, Illinois 


Dear Sir: 


7 . 


Dr. Glenn Frank, President 
University of Wisconsin 
Madison, Wisconsin 

Dear Sir: 


226 Lee Avenue 

Vicksburg, Mississippi 
February 4, 1931 


8 . 


Very Truly Yours 

James Wagner, Sales Manager 


9, Very truly yours, 

J, C, Halsey 

Manager Banking Department 


10. 


Yours Truly, 

{Mrs.) John C. Holzinger 










134 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Another 100 Per Cent Test 

Correct the five wrong examples in the preceding test and be 
prepared to take from dictation the five correct ones. 

Asking for Information 

1. Make questions clear. 

2. Explain why you want the information. 

3. Enclose a stamped and self-addressed envelope. 

4. Don’t write for information that you can secure in the 
library or ask questions calling for long answers. If a man’s 
opinion is worth much, he is usually extremely busy. 


289 Twelfth Street 
Dayton, Ohio 
February 1, 1930 

Dr. J. L. McConaughy, President 
Wesleyan University 
Middletown, Connecticut 

Dear Sir: 

As I am planning to enter Wesleyan in September, 
I should hke to get some information about the possi¬ 
bility of obtaining a scholarship. How large are the 
scholarships offered to first-year men? Is examination 
in some form required? If so, when and where must 
the applicant present himself? 

I shall be grateful for information on these points 
and for any literature published on the subject. 

Yours respectfully, 

William Ward 


Practice 4 

1. Your .class is collecting information about advertising rates. Write 
to the Outlook Company, 381 Fourth Avenue, New York City. 

2. You are preparing to debate the Philippine question. Write to the 




THE LETTER 


135 


Governor General of the Philippine Islands or some other authority on the 
subject. Ask several pointed questions which he can answer very briefly. 

3. In the catalog of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania, the explanation about subjects accepted as electives 
is not clear to you. Also nothing is said about opportunities for em¬ 
ployment. Ask the registrar about these matters. 

4. Ask the United States Forester, Washington, D. C., whether his 
department will lend pictures or lantern slides to your club. 

5. You are planning a trip down the St. Lawrence from Clayton to 
Quebec. Write for information to the Canadian Steamship Company, 
Montreal, Canada. 

6. Your class is planning to spend Easter week in Washington, D. C. 
Write to the New Raleigh Hotel for rates. Be specific about the number 
in the party, the length of time you are to stay, and the accommodations 
desired. 


Hurry-up Letter 

1. Even if a delay has been most annoying, be courteous. A 
courteous letter is more likely to secure the action you desire than 
an abusive, sarcastic, or scolding one. 

2. Be brief and definite. Explain why the delay has been a 
hardship to you. 

3. End with a statement about good service in the past, an 
anticipation of attention to the matter, or the like. 


Reply 

1. Explain what caused the delay and what action the company 
is taking. 

2. Express your regret for the inconvenience. 

3. End with a promise of better service in the future or another 
affirmative statement. 


Practice 5 

1. Two weeks ago you ordered from the American Book Company, 
Cincinnati, Ohio, a copy of Guerber’s Myths of Greece and Rome. The 
book hasn’t reached you. You need it as a reference book. Write a 
hurry-up letter. 


136 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


2. Write to Jones, Grant & Company, 119 Second Street, Lynn, 
Massachusetts, asking why you have not received the three hundred 
pairs of shoes ordered three weeks ago. Explain why you will have to 
telegraph a cancellation of the order if delivery is longer delayed. 

3. For the American Book Company and Jones, Grant & Company 
write replies to these letters. 


Collection 

1. A collection letter may explain why prompt payment of 
bills is necessary in the conduct of your business. 

2. Another appeal in a collection letter is to the sense of fair 
play. Explain that your service has been prompt and goods the 
best obtainable, and say that justice requires prompt payment. 

3. Or show that you will have to advance prices if your bills 
remain unpaid. 

4. A final letter should state that unless payment is made by 
a specified day you will put the bill into the hands of your attorney 
or a collection agency. 

5. A collection letter may be also a sales letter if reference is 
made to reduced prices, unusual values, or goods just received. 


Second Letter 

Dear Sir: 

For some reason we have not received your check 
for fifty dollars, now two months overdue. 

Don’t bother to write us a letter—we understand how 
such oversights occur. Simply put your check in the 
enclosed envelope and mail today. 

If you can’t send us the check today, let us know when 
you will pay the bill. 

Very truly yours, 


Third Letter 

Dear Sir: 

Having had no response to our letter of June 6, we 
are, to be frank, racking our brains for some way to 
reach you in order to get a response. Most collection 


THE LETTER 


137 


letters have a tendency to preach promptness and its 
virtues. We refrain from this and ask only our dues. 

At heart most persons are fair. We are willing to 
make allowance for unusual circumstances. But how 
are we to do that if we don’t know them? 

Won’t you please favor us with a check for fifty dollars 
or let us know whether there is any reason why this 
account has remained unpaid. 

Very truly yours, 

Practice 6 

1. Write the first and the fourth letters in this collection series. 

2. Clarence Jackson of 294 Fourth Street, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, 
one of your customers who buys freely but pays slowly, owes six hundred 
dollars for lumber. He has paid no attention to several statements and 
requests for payment. Write him a letter that will insure his attention 
to the matter but will not offend him. 

Sales Letter 

To write an effective sales letter one must know his reader, his 
product, and its selling point. 

1. In the first sentence catch the reader^s attention by a ques¬ 
tion, a command, a striking fact, or an appeal to his curiosity. 

2. Convince the reader to buy by explaining the merits of the 
article. This is called the ‘Teason why’’ appeal. 

3. Persuade him by showing how the article fits his needs. In 
selling luxuries the ‘^short circuit” appeal, or appeal to the emo¬ 
tions, is especially useful. 

4. Urge him to act at once. Enclose a blank to be filled out or 
offer an inducement to those who order promptly. 

5. The short paragraph is inviting. Paragraphs of the same 
length are monotonous. Hence vary the paragraph length, but 
seldom write a long paragraph. 

6. Make the letter simple, straightforward, chatty. Always 
keep in mind the person addressed, his interests, traits, needs, 
taste. A letter to a business man, for example, should be brief, 
snappy, and personal. 


138 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


JOHN RIGBY 

CRAIG-BYRNE SMART CLOTHES 
MEN’S FURNISHINGS 

c!A(W£; Tork^ 

October 14, 1929 

Mr. J. C. Zender 
49 New York Avenue 
Brooklyn, New York 

Dear Sir: 

Yesterday I sold a Fall Overcoat to a man on a visit 
from San Francisco. All he said was, want a Craig- 
Byrne.” The style and quality he took as much for 
granted, as the buttons and buttonholes. Could there 
be any higher tribute to 61 years of knowing how? 

Among my Autumn Style-models you^ll like mightily 
the Morley, if you’re in your teens or twenties, and the 
Saxon, if you’re in your thirties, forties, fifties. 

Both are soft, spruce, well-set-up suits, with “the 
Craig-Byrne touch,” something that no other clothing 
manufacturer has ever been able to match. 

Clothes as good as Craig-Byrne’s are not turned out, 
except by the steepest-cost Fifth Avenue tailor, and his 
price is $85, while mine is $20 to $45. 

The restful quiet here and the attentive service re¬ 
semble a club rather than a shop. 

Very sincerely yours, 

John Rigby 


JR/ED 




THE LETTER 


139 


First and Last Paragraphs 

The first and last paragraphs of a sales letter are the most 
important and hardest to write. A striking first paragraph will 
save the letter from being thrown unread into the wastebasket; a 
vigorous closing paragraph will encourage prompt action. 

Practice 7 

Compare the following introductory and concluding paragraphs. 
Which in each group are best? Poorest? Why? 

Introductory Paragraphs 

1. Do you mind very much if we give you a dollar? 

2. A well-known member of the New York Stock Exchange called at 
our offices the other day and said, ‘T am here because I want to live to 
be a hundred.” 

3. ‘T hope nobody will ever again send me a whole set of books like 
these. For four days it has been impossible to get anything done about 
the house. Nobody will come to meals, or go to bed, or do anything, 
but read O. Henry.” 

The above letter came from Superintendent of Schools W. P. Colburn, 
of Rhinelander, Wisconsin. There is a whole file case full of similar 
messages from O. Henry subscribers, who now number 130,000. 

4. The last chance you will ever have to get the works of Jack London 
free is now yours. 

5. I’ll pay you $10 just to read this letter and respond to it. 

6. A book of fiction is a serviceable magic carpet, able to transport 
you in the wink of an eye to foreign lands, or back to the past, or even 
far into the future. 

7. Have you decided what you are going to do this summer? 

8. Your name has been given to me as that of a person who is inter¬ 
ested in books, and as such I feel sure that you will appreciate and enjoy 
the little’pamphlet I am enclosing. 

Concluding Paragraphs 

1. But remember, too, we’ve only a few of these free sets of Jack 
London left, and we will have to make it “First come, first served”; so 
if you want one for your library, send in your card now. 

2. A student who wishes to enroll at this season should be sure to get 
his application in at an early date and thus avoid the delay occasioned 
by being too late to have one of the available seats assigned. 


140 ENGLISH IN ACTION 

3. The card herewith is for your convenience. Will you fill it in and 
mail it nowf 

4. Don’t wait to draw a check. Mail the attached card NOW. This 
is your last chance to save almost twenty-five per cent on the price you 
usually pay your newsdealer. Do it now and be glad. 

5. Read that again — and again. Then when you have convinced 
yourself that Efficiency is what you need — that Efficiency will enable 
you to obtain the many things that now seem out of your reach — send 
in your application. 

Your first lesson in Personal Efficiency wiU go forward immediately 
upon its receipt. 

6. The remaining sets are going fast, and unless I have your sub¬ 
scription at a very early date, the chances are you will be disap¬ 
pointed. 

7. I am enclosing a ceedit card for your $8.50 saving. It is already 
stamped. Don’t let it go to waste. Mail it to me at once. Let me 
send you at my expense the remaining fifteen volumes of Conrad in the 
Malay Edition. This is the one and only time you will receive this 
offer. 

8. Drop it in the post-box NOW. 

You’ll do this for me, won’t you? 

Practice 8 

1. You have inserted one of these advertisements (page 141) in the 
For Sale column of the newspaper. James G. Cross, 127 Main Street, 
asks for more detailed information about the property. Write his letter. 

2. Reply to Mr. Cross’s letter. 

3. Write a letter to induce the reader to buy an encyclopedia, perco¬ 
lator, couch hammock, adding machine, bulldog, stock in a company, 
filing cabinet, fountain pen, new pencil, piano player, camera, set of 
books, mimeograph, multigraph, aluminum boiler, radio, thermostat, 
hat, shoes, or other article, or to subscribe for a magazine. 

4. Write a follow-up letter to be mailed two weeks later. 

5. Write a sales letter advertising a book you have read this term. 

6. You have been appointed salesman for the Champion Vacuum 
Cleaner. The selling points of this particular cleaner, in addition to 
the usual advantages of vacuum cleaners in general, are a very durable 
and economical motor, low price ($35), which includes all attachments 
for special work, a patented attachment that cleans floors, and a device 
that does away with the job of emptying the bag. Write a letter to be 
sent to your prospective buyers. 

7. You wish to purchase a typewriter, electric washer, automobile, 
phonograph, piano, vacuum cleaner, electric refrigerator, stove, rug] 


THE LETTER 


141 


kitchen cabinet, electric ironer, or fireless cooker. Write to the Pitts¬ 
burgh Gage & Supply Company, 3010 Liberty Street, Pittsburgh, Penn¬ 
sylvania, asking definite questions about the Thornton washer, or write 
for information to a company manufacturing another of these articles. 

8. Write the company’s reply. 

9. To increase the circulation of the school paper or to sell tickets for 
a concert, a play, an exhibition, or a game, write a letter to be mailed to 
every graduate. 


DODGE sedan; perfect condition; must sell; 
any demonstration. 


BARGAIN 

8 rooms and bath, steam heat, sun parlor, 
glass porch, 4 bedrooms, music room, large 
living room; open fireplace, garage; plot 
75x150. 


IMMEDIATE POSSESSION, ten rooms, 
two baths, fireplaces; large plot. 


SMALL HOUSE, six rooms; every modern 
convenience. 


CONTENTS modern five-room apartment, 
reasonable. 


BUICK in good condition; repainted; new 
tires. 


CONTENTS of artistically furnished 
eight-room house; used only a year. 


SHEPHERD police dog, highly pedigreed, 
beauty, five months old; reasonable. 
Times 82. 


LIVING ROOM SUITE, piano, victrola, 
radio, rugs; perfect condition; reasonable; 
sacrifice. 1500 Boston Road (Apt. 63). 


RADIO SET for sale, new, never used, com¬ 
plete, table model. Room 408, General 
Motors Building. 


Letter to a Legislator or City Executive 

A democracy needs citizens who not only are honest and think 
straight but also let their legislators and executives know what 
they are thinking. 












142 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Practice 9 

1. Write to your congressman, senator, or assemblyman to convince 
or persuade him to support or oppose a bill before Congress or the state 
legislature. 

2. Write to the mayor or another city or town official, urging that 
he exert his influence in favor of better schools, school buildings, police 
protection, street cleaning, gas, parks, or another improvement. 

Telegram 

The telegram is written in an abbreviated style. Most con¬ 
junctions, prepositions, and articles are omitted, and adjectives 
and adverbs are used sparingly. Yet clearness is the first essential 
of a telegram; and brevity, the second. Because punctuation 
marks are ordinarily omitted in transmission, the telegram should 
be clear without them. If there is a possibility of misinterpreta¬ 
tion, however, the word stop should be inserted to show the break 
in thought. 

Notice that the telegram has no salutation or complimentary 
close, that the numbers are written out, and that the writer 
inserts stop when he thinks it is needed to make the message 
absolutely clear. 

Counting Words 

The minimum charge is for ten words. Each additional word 
increases this rate. Four thousand is counted as two words; 
fifty-four thousand, as three; 4000 as four; 64000, as five. A 
dictionary word like New York City, North Dakota, A.M., C.O.D., 
per cent, cannot, or O.K, is counted as one word. The following, 
which are not dictionary words, are counted as two words each: 
twenty-five, 25, Pennsylvania Railroad, James Corson. The name 
and address of the sender and the receiver are not charged for, 
but a title like football manager after the signature is counted. 

Night Letter 

The night letter is a telegram sent at night to be delivered the 
next morning. The rate for a fifty-word night letter is the same 
as for a ten-word day telegram. 


THE LETTER 


143 


PATRONS ARE REQUESTED TO FAVOR THE COMPANY BY CRITiaSM AND SUGGESTION CONCERNING ITS SERVICE 


Class of Service 

Thjs is a fulWatc 
Telegram or Cable* 
pram unless ics de* 
(erred character is m* 
dicated by a suitable 
sign above or prcced* 
tng the address. 


WESTERN 

UNION 


NEWCOMP CAACTOH. AAt*>eiMT 


SIGNS 


DL “ Dat Letter 


hJM ** Night Mesuce 


NL " Night Letter 


LCO = Deferred Csble 


CLT = Cable Letter 


WLT » Week-End Letter 


Tho fibiw lime M ebowD lo Ule <1>U liM os IuIl-1.1. teletniu sod dor leltm. sod Um time c( neei|» u deouoouoo u dioso os sU m<aoM<s. » STANDARD flMiT 

Received at 


UARCH 6 1920 


MR JAMBS DOERING 
147 SECOND STREET 
ALEXANDRIA LOUISIANA 


HAVE OFFER OF SEVEN THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED FOR 
yOUR HOUSE TWO THOUSAND DOWN REFERENCES GOOD WIRE REPLY 

SMITH REALTY COMPANY 


PATRONS ARE REQUESTED TO FAVOR THE COMPANY BY CRITICTSM AND SUGGESTION CONCERNING ITS SERVICE 

I Ml S 



Receivtd at 

r 


MARCH 6 1930 

SMITH REALTY COMPANY 
FLAGSTAFF ARIZONA 

OFFER NOT ACCEPTED STOP WILL TAKE EIGHT 
THOUSAND IF FOUR THOUSAND IS PAID DOWN 
JAMES R DOERING 


Letter Confirming a Telegram 

In a letter of explanation following an important telegram, 
the writer ordinarily repeats the telegram and gives further de¬ 
tails. 














































144 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Example of telegram and letter of explanation: 


NOVEMBER 7 1930 

THE WRIGHT SHOE COMPANY 
CANTON OHIO 

HOLDING SHIPMENT SUBJECT TO YOUR 
ORDERS AS CASE ARRIVED BROKEN 

CHARLES H GENUNa 


435 Silver Street 

Brooklyn, New York 
November 7, 1930 

The Wright Shoe Company 
Canton, Ohio 

Gentlemen: 

Today I sent you the following telegram: “Holding 
shipment subject to your orders as case arrived broken.” 

The case of shoes you sent arrived, but on examination 
we found it had been broken in transit. As some of the 
contents may have been removed, we shall await your 
order concerning further action you wish us to take. 

Very truly yours, 

Charles H. Genung 


Practice 10 

1. In a telegram to the Barnsdall Oil Company, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 
offer $1.20 a barrel for two thousand barrels of Oklahoma light crude oil 
on condition that shipment is made within a week. In a letter confirm 
the telegram. 

2. On your way home you missed connections. Telegraph your father, 
who has planned to meet you at the station. 






THE LETTER 


145 


3. As manager of a baseball team cancel a game by telegraph. It is 
raining, and even if the rain stops, the field will be muddy and soggy. 

4. On an automobile trip your expenses are substantially higher 
than you anticipated. Telegraph home for money. 

6. Write a telegram of not more than 20 words to King and Ware, 
262 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ordering 26 dozen 
notebooks, number 648, to be delivered by parcel post to your New 
York City office, the address of which they know. Request them to 
telegraph you at your expense whether or not the books will be delivered 
without delay. Be clear and brief.— Regents 

6. Your employer, S. J. Dixon, directs you to wire Mr. C. E. Hayes, 
297 Madison Avenue, New York City, that he will meet Mr. Hayes at 
Hotel Pennsylvania at three o’clock on Friday afternoon to discuss the 
program for the next meeting of the association. Write the telegram. 
In a letter confirm the telegram. 

7. Condense, without changing the meaning, this telegram to S. K. Post, 
15 Broadway, Erie, Pennsylvania: (Do not use more than ten words.) 

PLEASE SHIP ME AT ONCE BY EXPRESS 12 DOZEN FLOOR BROOMS NO. 250 
SEND THEM COLLECT. 

Write also a letter confirming this telegram.— Regents 

8. As manager of the school football team telegraph to arrange a 
game with a neighboring school. Give full information about dates, 
officials, field, expenses, and division of the gate receipts. 

9. Telegraph your mother on her birthday. 

Other T 3 rpes of Business Letters 

Practice 11 

Jot down points to be kept in mind in writing each type of 
letter. Outline your letter by paragraphs before writing it. 

1. As manager of a school team write to another school to arrange a 
game. Be specific about the place, available dates, expenses, officials, 
and division of gate receipts. 

2. Invite another school or a society of another school to hold a joint 
contest—debate, algebra contest, art contest, or pronunciation contest. 

3. In a letter invite some one to address the assembly of the school. 
In another letter thank the speaker. 

4. Ask a college to send you a catalog or a bulletin giving information 
about expenses, entrance requirements, and courses. 

5. Your school needs a new building, an addition, a swimming pool, 
a gymnasium, an athletic field, or additional equipment. Write to the 
president of the Board of Education. 


146 


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6. Write to the president of the Alumni Association, urging the estab¬ 
lishment of a fund to help needy pupils. Explain why the fund is needed. 
Suggest a plan for raising the money and administering the fund. 

7. The president of the Bergwall Oil Company, 247 Madison Avenue, 
New York City, has known you for several years and writes to get your 
opinion of one of your classmates who has applied to him for a position. 
Write a letter of recommendation. 

8. Write to Dieges & Clust, 15 John Street, New York City, about 
class pins. Ask for designs and prices. 

9. Write a letter to some one who has been of service to the school. 
Only the best letter will be mailed. 

10. You have more points than are required for admission to a college. 
In a letter to the Committee on Admission state the facts clearly and 
fully and ask whether by taking examinations or in some other way you 
can secure college credit for the courses. 


FRIENDLY LETTER 
Heading, Salutation, Complimentary Close 

1. The punctuation of the heading may be open or close. 

2. The address and date may be placed after the body of the 
letter. Form 1 is much more common than Form 2. 


Form 1 


Dear Murray, 


524 Lefferts Avenue 
Richmond HILL, New York 
January 17, 1931 


Cordially yours, 

Harvey Fay 





THE LETTER 


147 


Form 2 


Dear Murray, 


Cordially yours, 
Haroey Fay 


524 Lefferts Aoenue 

Richmond Hill, New York 
January 17, 1931 


3. Don’t omit the date. Never omit your address unless 
you are dead sure that the person to whom you are writing knows 
it. In any case place your address on the envelope to insure its 
return if it does not reach the person written to. 

4. Use a comma after the salutation. 

5. The salutation and complimentary close are more cordial 
than those of a business letter. Correct salutations are— 

Dear Walt, Dear old Dad, 

Dear Uncle Jack, My dear little Lucy, 

Dear Mrs. Wilson, Dearest Mother, 

6. The following are examples of complimentary closings: 

Sincerely yours. Faithfully yours. 

Cordially yours. Affectionately your brother, 

Yours ever. Sincerely your friend. 

Your affectionate friend. Your loving sister, 

7. The address of the person written to is omitted unless he is 
almost a stranger or occupies a position of honor. In that case 
the name and address are generally placed at the end of the letter. 






148 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Dear Dr. Carleton, 


118 Boylston Street 
Boston, Massachusetts 
January 4, 1930 


Yours oery truty, 

James Parsons ' 


Dr. Witliam D. Carteton 
Cotumbia UnLoersity 

116th Street, New York City 


Body 

1. Don’t begin with a hackneyed phrase like have nothing 
else to do,” or ‘‘I have often thought of writing to you but— 

2. The prime purpose of a friendly letter, which is the best 
substitute for conversation, is to entertain. Show that you value 
your friend by writing a wide-awake, original, painstaking letter. 
A clear, vigorous, natural, chatty style is more effective than a 
showy, pretentious, bookish one. Keep your troubles to yourself 
unless there is a good reason for telling them. 

3. Never write in anger. If you write an important letter late 
at night, reread it in the morning before sending it. When in 
doubt about what you have written, tear the letter up. 

Paper 

The friendly letter is usually written on one or more double 
sheets of paper. A note may be written on a correspondence card. 
White is the preferred color; some shades of gray are attractive; 
striking colors suggest barbaric taste. A writer who has learned 





THE LETTER 


149 


to leave a margin may fill the pages of the double sheet in the order 
1, 2, 3, 4. Another method is to fill pages 1 and 4 and then treat 
2 and 3 as one large sheet and write on it at right angles to the 
lines on pages 1 and 4. A letter of two pages should be written 
on pages 1 and 3. 


Practice 12 

1. To a friend write a lively, entertaining letter. 

^ 2. Convince a friend who at the end of his third year in a neighboring 
high school has been offered a position with a fair salary and excellent 
opportunity for advancement that he should complete his high-school 
course. 

3. You have a friend who never reads a book. Write a letter to per¬ 
suade him to read a supplementary book you have especially enjoyed 
this term. 

4. A friend wants ideas for entertaining. Tell her about a unique 
party you have just given or attended. 

For a review of the form of a friendly letter see Volume One of 
English in Action. 

176 Pine Street 
Brooklyn, New York 
February 6, 1929 

Dear Rus, 

It’s been a long time since I last wrote to you, and I am 
somewhat ashamed of myself. I shall try to make up for my 
tardiness by stuffing this letter full of information. 

I have just experienced the thrill of entering for the first 
time that long-promised new R. H. H. S. building, and what 
a worthy reward for our badly battered patience it is! The 
building is beautiful but unfamiliar and peculiar to me as yet. 

A number of times I lost my bearings and ended up in the bal¬ 
cony over the auditorium instead of the physics “lab” or the 
economics class. All such confusion will be eliminated though, 

I suppose, when every one has become used to the new system 
and arrangements. 

I’m an eighth termer now and I’ve resolved to do all I can 
this one term to prevent any one’s defacing the building. It 
really was a shame the way our good old building was mutilated 
by students. If any one tries such puerile vandalism in the 
new school, he should be severely lectured by all the principals 


150 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


and maybe a few more, his parents notified of his “art work,*^ 
and then he should be set loose among the students with a 
card around his neck proclaiming him a childish destroyer of 
property not his own. I guess that would make him stop. 

Whew! I’m glad I’ve got that off my chest. One paragraph 
of bitterness is enough in one letter, but I’ll forget that and 
tell you about some books I’ve been reading lately. Remember 
how simple those Sherlock Holmes mysteries used to be to 
solve? I have found an author who has me stumped. I 
read two of his books and didn’t know who the murderer was 
any better two pages from his solution than I did at the begin¬ 
ning of the books. He writes under the pen name of S. S. Van 
Dine, his real identity remaining hidden. 

I read an article in the Times about him a while ago which 
gave me an interesting insight into the manner in which he 
began his work as a writer of detective stories. He is a very 
learned man, as one can see by reading his books, and writes 
very deep books. It happened that he became ill of overwork 
and was forbidden by the doctor even to read anything for 
some time. When he was permitted to read fiction, he chose 
detective stories, perusing hundreds of them. When he was 
once more his former robust self, he wrote a long book telling 
how to write detective stories. After this was done, he decided 
that if he told others how to write such stories he should write 
one himself to test his theories. He planned to write five 
stories, four of which have been published in Scribner's Maga¬ 
zine in four successive years. These four are The Benson 
Murder Case^ The Canary Murder Case, The Greene Murder 
Casey and The Bishop Murder Case. 

He uses an entirely new method of approach, that of psy¬ 
chological analysis. His cynical central character, Philo 
Vance, is made to probe deep into the hidden things of the 
mystery and overlook the obvious, misleading evidence. 

Of his four books I have read the first two. When you come 
to my house we shall discuss them. Maybe you can solve his 
mysteries, but as for me I am no nearer a conclusion at the 
end than at the start. Come and see me soon and we shall 
talk them over. 

Perhaps some day we shall write books ourselves. Who 
can tell? 

Yours ever, 

Charlie 


THE LETTER 


151 


Practice 13 

1. In an accident a hundred miles from home your car is damaged 
and you are slightly injured. Telegraph your parents. Write a letter 
giving additional information. 

2. In a letter to your pastor, rabbi, or priest, the president of the 
bank, the editor of a newspaper, your physician, the principal of your 
elementary school, or some other person who knows you, ask permission 
to use his name as a reference in applying for a position. 

3. A friend in another high school has asked you how to look up 
material for a debate on the proposition. Resolved, That the eighteenth 
amendment should be repealed. Answer his letter. 

4. To a friend who is sailing for Europe next week write a steamer 
letter. He will have time to read a long letter and will enjoy an amusing 
one. 

5. Ask an older friend about the choice of a college. Tell him what 
colleges you are considering and what life work you are preparing for. 

6. In a letter to the principal ask permission to change your program, 
organize a club, or carry out a club activity, or request or urge some other 
action for the welfare of the pupils and the school. 

7. A friend of your father can lend you enough money for your 
education, obtain admission to some college with limited enrollment, or 
obtain a college scholarship. Write him a letter to interest him in your 
future. Tell him about your education, interests, ambition, and energy. 
—Regents 

8. Invite a friend for a walk in the country, fishing trip, picnic, 
theater party, school or church entertainment, week-end party, or auto¬ 
mobile trip. Write also a note of acceptance and a regret. 

9. One of your friends has asked your advice about buying a fountain 
pen, an automobile, a vacuum cleaner, a radio set, a dog, an electric 
refrigerator, a water heater, or another article. Advise him, giving the 
results of your experience. Explain to him what type or make will best 
suit his purpose, point out its advantages or disadvantages, and com¬ 
pare it with other types.— Regents 

Informal Discussion 

Friendly letters are not limited to personal matters, experiences, 
descriptions, and reading, but often include discussions on a great 
variety of subjects. In the following letters Margy and Kate 
indulge in a lively, good-natured argument on the subject “College 
Versus Business. 


152 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


126 Albany Avenue 
Brooklyn, New York 
December 6, 1929 

Dear Kate, 

Good news! I’ve finally succeeded in getting my rebellious 
family to give their consent to my not going to college. Now 
don’t sputter indignant protests all over the place, but listen to 
me for a change. It took a lot of oratory and logic on my part 
to convince the family of the soundness of my decision. Let me 
now proceed to impress you with the wonderful depth of my 
mind and my great amount of good sense. 

In the first place, I’m tired to death of study. What good can 
it do me to slave over logarithms, simultaneous quadratic 
equations, and the like? We cover sheets of paper with all 
kinds of figures, and then Mr. S. throws ’em in the basket, 
gives us 59, and we sit and figure for six months more over a 
lot of endless nonsense. It’s the same way with economics. 
I miss two-thirds of what is being said because I can’t under¬ 
stand our teacher’s pronunciation, and the remaining one-third 
has nothing but anesthetic value for me. Then there’s geome¬ 
try. What earthly good will it do me fifty-five years from now 
to know that an inscribed angle equals one-half the intercepted 
arc? And what difference will it make whether I know it or 
not? Will that help me if I have four kids with scarlet fever? 

In the second place, all the girls in college have loads of 
clothes, and if I went I’d be out of place and unhappy, whereas 
if I go to work. I’ll be independent and able to buy the things I 
want. I’m tired of looking like a Thanksgiving ragamufl^n 
every day in the week. 

In the third place, after four years in college supposedly I’d 
be ready to teach. Even then, however, there would be 
years of substituting, and all the rest of my life I’d be catering 
to the eccentricities and idiosyncrasies of about a million su¬ 
periors. No, thank you! 

It sure will be a relief to be able to be free in the evenings I 
Nothing to do but read, read, read, and no homework in the 
oflang. Now admit you envy my prospects! 

Love, 

Margy 


THE LETTER 


153 


Dear Margy, 


182 Fourth Street 
Cleveland, Ohio 

December 13, 1929 


You have succeeded in impressing me with the unsoundness 
of your reasoning and your utter lack of common sense. How 
your harassed family ever listened to such bosh is inconceivable. 
You must have talked them unconscious. I’ve Ustened to you 
enough. Now you listen to me. 

I agree that just at present labor over seemingly unintelli¬ 
gible figures isn’t very amusing, nor does it appear at all essen¬ 
tial to your future happiness to be able to do geometry. But 
these subjects are training your mind. They’ll help you think 
more quickly, grasp things more clearly, so that even if your 
aspirations lead you no farther than four Mds with scarlet fever, 
a trained brain and developed intellect will stand by you in such 
a crisis and pull you through with all four safe and sound. It is 
hard to see the use of it all, sometimes, but it is the one with 
an all-round, sound education who makes out in the end. You 
know that as well as I, but you’re so set against college that you 
refuse to open your mind. A college education would certainly 
do a great deal towards making you more broad-minded. 

As to the clothes question—that’s utterly ridiculous! You 
have just as many “fixins” as any girl I know, and if you’d sit 
down long enough, you could make more at a very little expense. 

As for being independent—that’s a joke! Fifteen dollars a 
week (that’s about what an uneducated person makes, $20 
at the most), fine clothes, and independence don’t go together. 
You’ll never get any farther unless you study in the evening, 
which isn’t easy by any means, and you ought to take advantage 
of the opportunity offered you. 

Teaching has its disadvantages, of course. Can you name 
anything that hasn’t? You’ve had the advantages pointed out 
to you often enough, goodness knows. You don’t have to teach 
when you graduate, you know. Most college graduates don’t. 
But what about all the perfectly wonderful teachers you used 
to rave over? 

Then, too, that reading program sounds attractive, but four 
years more in college will give you so much better under¬ 
standing and knowledge of good literature that you will appre¬ 
ciate books more. 

Think it over, cheer up, and give college a try for at least a 
year. Love, 

Kate 


154 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Practice 14 

Choose by drawing names from a hat or in some other way an opponent 
who will reply by letter to an informal argument you write him. Sup¬ 
pose, for example, that he at the end of his third year in high school has 
been offered a position with a fair salary and excellent opportunity for 
advancement. Try to convince him that he should complete his high- 
school course, and then wait for his reply. Instead, you and your opponent 
may argue about college, poetry, the value of Latin, prohibition, a can¬ 
didate for office, the youth of today, the value of athletics, the effects of 
football, the influence of the movies, Sunday baseball, lengthening the 
school day, the value of English, high-school fraternities, or any other 
subject mentioned—or not mentioned—in the chapter on argument 
and debate. 

Example of letter to teacher: 


102 Park Avenue 
New York City 
February 7, 1930 

Dear Mr. Johnson, 

At present I am engaged in the most interesting outside ac¬ 
tivity that it has ever been my luck to encounter. It means 
hard work and the possessing of unlimited patience, for I am 
producing a play, rather a musical comedy, called The Witching 
Hour. The manuscript is not very elaborate because I wrote it 
myself. But to offset this I am using a great deal of good music 
and dancing. With the help of my father I am coaching the 
singing, dancing, and acrobatic stunts, painting the drop cur¬ 
tains, and designing the sets, which will be carried out by a stage 
carpenter. 

In the cast there are fifty-five girls ranging from thirteen to 
eighteen years of age. Many of them are older than I. They 
are the members of a church choir and are especially fitted for 
a musical play. The girls will fill all the boys^ parts. Re¬ 
hearsals are held every Friday night for the chorus and Saturday 
afternoon for the principals. 

In selecting the characters, I found it necessary to use a 
great amount of tact. It is strange how jealous people are, 
even though they are not fitted for a part as well as the person 
chosen. In order to insure perfect harmony, I have arranged 
the chorus so that each girl has a certain amount of solo work. 
This arrangement seems to suit every member of the cast. 

I expect to have the first performance of my play on the Friday 
following Easter Sunday. If it is a success, it will be repeated 


THE LETTER 


155 


the next Friday. I am told that I have undertaken a tremen¬ 
dous job, but with my father, who is somewhat of a genius, to 
help me, I expect to make it a great success. If it does come 
up to my expectations, I should like very much to have you 
come and see it as a critic. 

Sincerely yours, 

Isabel Hanley 

Practice 15 

1. After reading Isabel Hanley’s letter write to your English teacher 
about outside activities, plays, talking pictures, sports, school fun and 
tasks, your vacation plans, your choice of a vocation or thoughts about 
vocations, next year, college, or other topics. 

2. Write to your teacher an entertaining and illuminating letter about 
a book you have read recently. 

3. Imagine that in an old trunk in the attic you have come upon a 
diary kept by your great-grandfather during the war between the North 
and the South. Write a letter to your history teacher about one of 
the most exciting incidents in the war in which your great-grandfather 
apparently took a leading part. 

4. Write a letter to the author of a story which you have recently 
read in a magazine. Tell him what you like and do not like about his 
story and explain why. Ask him to give you some advice regarding the 
craft of writing. 

Apology and Explanation 

A letter of apology in which the writer spends most of his time 
defending himself is useless—and amusing. Why write at all if 
you are not ready frankly to admit you’re wrong? Of course, 
one must differentiate between an apology for wrongdoing and an 
explanation of an unavoidable failure to keep an appointment or 
a promise. 

Example: 

601 Lincoln Highway 
Clinton, Iowa 

November 16, 1929 

Dear Alice, 

I know you must feel as though you never wished to hear 
from me again. Now that I am able to look at things rationally 


156 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


myself, I certainly don’t blame you, but I am trusting to your 

kind heart to try to forgive and forget. 

When in such a huff I left you yesterday, it didn’t occur to me 

until later what breaking up our friendship would mean to 

both of us. I suggest that we forget yesterday. 

Won’t you accept my apology and come to visit me tomorrow 

afternoon? i j 

Sincerely your friend, 

Norma Manly 


Pkactice 16 

1. You have been mean, cranky, unreasonable, rude, untruthful, or 
disagreeable. Apologize to a friend who has been a victim. 

2. In a letter explain why you were unable to keep an appointment 
or a promise. 

Introduction 

Because the purpose of a letter of introduction is to establish a 
friendship between two people, the letter should make clear what 
the two people have in common; for example, a love of travel, 
literature, music, or adventure. It should also explain why the 
bearer of the letter happens to be in the city of address. 

Near the center of the envelope write the name of the person 
addressed; and in the lower left-hand corner. Introducing Alfred 
Jordan. Hand Alfred the letter, unsealed and unstamped. 

610 West Armstrong Avenue 
Peoria, Illinois 

November 26, 1929 

Dear Edward, 

Do you remember Alfred Jordan about whose exploits I told 
you? Well, here he is. He is going to spend his summer at 
Rocky Hill Camp, right next to your place. 

A1 played fullback on Exel’s team at the same time that you 
were quarterback at Fulton. And his ideas about life are very 
similar to yours. He believes that the best life is under the 
blue sky out in the open spaces. You’ll find him a likable chap, 
very sociable, and exceedingly clever. You two scouts wdll, 
I’m sure, have some good times together. 

Write to me soon, and tell me about your various feats. 

Cordially yours, 

Nathaniel Boyle 


THE LETTER 


157 


Practice 17 

When you lived in Denver (or another city or town), you had one 
real friend. Now one of your pals is moving to Denver. Write the 
letter of introduction. 


Letters of Courtesy 

Thoughtful, sympathetic people write many letters of courtesy; 
young, selfish, ignorant, and lazy ones frequently neglect these 
opportunities to grow in kindness, to make others happy, and to 
increase their circle of friends. Letters of courtesy, which include 
letters of thanks, congratulation, and condolence, must be written 
promptly. If a month after a first visit you thank your hostess or 
months after a death you write a note of sympathy, the letter is 
of little value. 

Letters of courtesy are not lengthy, literary efforts but sincere, 
direct, genuine expressions of feeling. To express simply what is 
in one’s heart is much better than to search for lofty, meaningless 
phrases. 


Thanks 


Every young person understands one must thank a friend for 
a gift or hospitality, but many people, young and old, neglect to 
write notes like the following to thank those who help them in a 
variety of ways. 


301 West Twentieth Street 
Dubuque, Iowa 
October 9, 1929 

Dear Mr. Gleason, 

The material that you sent will, I am sure, prove helpful in 
the coming debate. It was kind of you to give me so much of 
your time in writing such a full explanation. 

I am very grateful for your assistance. 


Mr. James Gleason 

Hyde Park High School 
Chicago, Illinois 


Sincerely yours, 
Lucille Comstock 


158 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


1433 Washington Street 
Canton, Massachusetts 
December 28, 1929 

Dear Fred, 

I have seen much in the various reviews and periodicals 
concerning the work of Emil Ludwig, but have not had the 
opportunity to read any of his vivid biographies. Hence I was 
delighted to receive from you on Christmas day a copy of his 
Napoleon. A great character, and a great biographer—^it 
should be excellent reading, and though I haven’t started it yet, 
I am looking forward to doing so with real pleasure. I’m hold¬ 
ing off till I have time to dive in and read without interruption. 
I’m sure I’ll enjoy the book immensely, and thank you heartily. 

I know your holidays were very happy ones and hope that 
the new year will bring you health and joy. 

Sincerely yours, 

Joe 


Congratulation 

In congratulating a friend write him an entertaining note show¬ 
ing your joy in his success. When you receive a letter of con¬ 
gratulation, remember that it should be answered. 


1643 North Second Street 
Minneapolis, Minnesota 
May 17, 1930 

Dear Richard, 

You cannot imagine how glad I was when I heard of your 
winning the French medal. It was a wonderftil achievement, 
and we’re all proud of you. 

I can picture you standing upon the platform on commence¬ 
ment night in front of several thousand people, with your chest 
thrown out and your head high, receiving the award. I can see 
you striding across the stage and down the steps like Napoleon 
himself, while the whole vast auditorium rings with applause. 
I can see, too, the entire French class gazing with envy at the 
medal. It must be a fine one, and you must bring it with you 
the next time you visit us. 

Remember me to your parents and write soon. 

Your old friend, 

Harvey 


THE LETTER 


159 


Condolence 

In a letter of condolence show simply and directly that you 
sympathize with your sorrowing friend. 

230 College Place 
Iowa City, Iowa 
Jtme 6, 1930 

Dear Margaret, 

There’s a lump in my throat, and no matter how hard I 
swallow, it won’t go down; it just sticks there, because, dear 
Margaret, I’m sorry, so sorry for you. 

Your father’s death must have been a great shock; I guess it is 
only human to suppose that sorrow may come near us, but that 
it wiU not touch us. Maybe it is better so. 

At such a time words seem idle. I wish there were some¬ 
thing that I could do instead of just sending my deepest sym¬ 
pathy. 

I hope that you will be a great help to your mother in her 
grief and find comfort in her love for you. 

Affectionately yours, 

Isabel Landon 


Practice 18 

1. Thank a hostess for a delightful week-end visit. 

2. Imagine that sorrow has come to one of your friends. Write him 
(or her) a letter of condolence. 

3. Send birthday greetings or anniversary greetings to a celebrity, 
an elderly person, your father or mother, or a friend. 

4. To a friend who is recovering from a serious illness write a cheery, 
entertaining letter. 


Informal Notes of Invitation and Reply 

An informal invitation should be cordial and should contain 
all necessary information. Notice that Alice Ward, when in the 
following letter she invites Lucille Johnson to join the Reading 
Club, makes clear what the purpose, the activities, the dues, and 
the time and place of meeting of the club are and who the mem¬ 
bers are. 


160 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


The reply should be prompt and definite, and, whether an 
acceptance or a regret, should show that the writer really appre¬ 
ciates the kindness of his friend. 


1518 Second Avenue North 
Minneapolis, Minnesota 
September 30, 1930 

Dear Lucille, 

I am sure you have heard me speak about the Reading Club of 
which I am a member, and of the jolly times we have at our meet¬ 
ings. The members of the club now invite you to join. All the girls 
would like to have you one of our group. 

The club is composed of nine girls, some of whom, Betty, Dorothy, 
and Eleanor, you know. We meet every Friday at seven o’clock 
at the homes of the members. The purpose of the meetings is to 
read and discuss books, plays, and poetry, old and new. Occasion¬ 
ally we also go in a group to see either the stage or a motion-picture 
version of a book. The dues of the club, ten cents per meeting, 
we use either to buy books or to pay for the refreshments. 

I know you enjoy reading and am sure you would find the girls 
congenial. When you decide, please write to Mary Brooks, 324 
St. James Street. 

Sincerely yours, 

Alice Ward 


145 Fifth Avenue North 
Minneapolis, Minnesota 
October 3, 1930 

Dear Alice, 

Of course, I shall be delighted to join! Who wouldn’t if reading 
were her hobby and the girls in the club were perfectly lovely? 

I have written to Mary Brooks, accepting the club’s invitation, 
and thought I would let you know my decision. I thank you all 
heartily for asking me to join and am sure I shall have fine times. 

Do come to see me soon. Just phone me first so I shall know when 
to expect you. 

Cordially yours, 

Lucille Johnson 


THE LETTER 


161 


1800 Chestnut Street 

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 
May 16, 1930 

Dear Marion, 

My father has bought a new radio set, and I should like you to 
come over to hear it next Friday night. There will be a good dance 
program. 

In tone our new radio, a six-tube Stromberg-Carlson, is much 
better than the old one. And it brings in clearly the programs of 
most of the stations of the country. Last week we got California. 

Ruth, Isabel, and Lillian will be here and are very anxious to see 
you. I shall expect you on Friday, and if you can’t come, we shall 
be disappointed. 

Your loving chum, 

Dorothy 


814 Comstock Avenue 
Syracuse, New York 
December 9, 1929 

Dear Harriet, 

Will I visit you during the Christmas holidays? Well, I should 
say so. Your mother is kind indeed to be willing to add me to her 
jolly family during the holiday season. 

It will be wonderful for you and me to be together again for a 
whole week. Vividly I remember the good times that you gave us 
up at camp, especially your party on the beach. 

On Saturday morning, December 22,1 shall take the train for New 
York that is scheduled to reach Grand Central Station at 5:24 P.M. 

Your loving friend, 

Ruth (Buster) Dudley 


8409 —117th Street 
Richmond Hill, New York 
February 6, 1929 

Dear Jack, 

When I got up this morning, I was the crossest person in creation. 
The reason? Well, you know how you feel on Monday morning: a 
whole week of school, homework, and more school. Yes, our house 
was a dreary place. 

Then your letter camel Miracles were performed! You saved 
mother from nervous prostration, dad from apoplexy, and me from 


162 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


passing out of existence entirely. Now I have something to look for¬ 
ward to all week. It is needless to say that I shall be very much 
among those present at your party on Friday evening. 

Gratefully yours, 

Edward 


Peactice 19 

1. As Lucille Johnson, decline the invitation to join the book club. 

2. Marion sends regrets to Dorothy. Write her letter. 

3. Marion accepts Dorothy’s invitation. Write the letter. 

4. Write Harriet’s invitation which Ruth Dudley accepted. Also for Ruth 
send regrets to Harriet. 

. 5. Ask a friend to go with you to a summer camp or on an excursion or 
outing. Be definite about the time, place, distance, expense, clothing, and 
equipment. 

6. Write Jack’s invitation which Edward accepted. 

Formal Notes 

Formal notes, either engraved or pen-written, are sent as invi¬ 
tations to weddings, receptions, and dinner parties. The answer, 
written on letter paper or a correspondence card, should be similar 
in wording to the original note. 

Invitation 


Mr. and Mrs. James Hamilton 
request the pleasure oj 
Mr. and Mrs. Gamble s company 
at dinner on Wednesday, December tweljth, 
at six o'clock. 

Twenty-seoen Beech Street 



THE LETTER 


163 


Acceptance 


Mr, and Mrs, Gamble accept with pleasure the 
kind ini>itatLon to dine with Mr, and Mrs. James 
Hamilton on Wednesday, December twelfth, at six 
cf clock, 

148 Morningside Drioe 
December first 


Regret 


Mr. and Mrs. Gamble regret that a previous 
engagement presents them from accepting Mr. and 
Mrs. Hamilton s kind invitation to dine with them 
on Wednesday, December tweljth. 

148 Morningside Drive 
December first 


Notice that— 

1. The note and the replies are in the third person. 

2. Formal notes lack heading, salutation, comphmentary close, 
and signature. 

3. When the invitation is sent to a person in the same city, the 
name of the city is omitted but the street address is given. 

4. The present tense is used in the answer. 

5. No abbreviations except Mr., Mrs., Jr., and o’clock are used. 

6. Numbers, except house-numbers, are written in words. 

7. The acceptance mentions the day and the hour of the dinner. 






164 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Visiting-Card Invitations 

The hostess’ card with the time and kind of entertainment on 
it is commonly used in inviting to an informal dance, musical, 
picnic, or a tea to meet a guest, or for bridge. 



The answer to an invitation on a calling card is exactly the same 
as the reply to a formal penned or engraved invitation. 

Pkactice 20 

1. Write both an acceptance of Mrs. Proudfoot’sinvitation and aregret. 

2. Mr. and Mrs. James Howland Wilson have invited you to be 
present at the marriage of their daughter Hester to Mr. James Ferguson 
at four o’clock on June 6 at their home, 4 West 187th Street. Write 
both an acceptance and a regret. 



CHAPTER IX 

EXPLANATION AND ESSAY 

The Value of the Ability to Explain 

One writer estimates that two-thirds of ordinary speech and 
writing is explanation. In class every day you stand up and ex¬ 
plain what, why, when, where, and how; in tests and examinations 
you write out explanations of causes, results, methods, principles, 
rules, and processes. The salesman explains the merits of his 
goods; the teacher, the points the pupils do not understand; the 
manager and the employer, the work to be done and the way to 
do it; the baseball coach, the rules of the game and the way to 
play each position; the engineer, the advantages of his plans; the 
physician, the proper care of his patient; the lawyer, the facts in 
the case and the law that applies to it; the housewife, the kind of 
meat, fruit, vegetables, hats, dresses, or furniture she wants; the 
politician, the qualifications of his candidate; the minister, rabbi, 
and priest, the reasons for loving and serving God and man. Pro¬ 
fessor Palmer says, ‘^He who can explain himself can command 
what he wants.” 


How to Explain 

1. Know the subject thoroughly. You can’t explain a subject 
that is somewhat hazy in your own mind. If you are in doubt 
about points, observe, ask some one who knows the subject, or 
look the subject up in books or magazines. 

2. By putting yourself in the other fellow’s place discover what in 
the explanation is likely to he confusing, and make this so clear that 
the reader or hearer must understand. Ask yourself. What does my 
hearer or reader know? What questions will he ask? What will 
he find difficult? An English teacher says, ^Hn explaining any¬ 
thing to a general audience you should remember that they are 
more ignorant than you think they are.” 

165 


166 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Since to explain means to make clear or plain, an explanation 
is valueless if it doesn’t make the subject clear to the reader or 
hearer. In the solution of a problem, for example, decide at what 
point pupils are most likely to stumble, then clearly indicate the 
exact steps to be taken, and hang a red danger sign on each 
stumbling block. In the explanation of what repair work a painter, 
carpenter, plumber, mason, or electrician is to do in the house, 
think what in the instructions he might misunderstand and make 
this point crystal clear. The explanation is a failure unless he 
understands. Hence try to connect your explanation with some¬ 
thing your hearer or reader already understands. For example, 
cite distances in terms of well-known streets or drives, give heights 
in terms of tall buildings, compare a room with your schoolroom, 
liken a lift pump to a soda straw. 

PrA-CTICE 1 

What comparison helps to make this illustration clear? Of 
what use is the diagram? 

THE HOT-AIR 
FURNACE 

The hot-air furnace in 
the basement is simply a 
big stove surrounded by 
a coating of galvanized 
sheet iron. The air be¬ 
tween the stove and the 
outer jacket is heated, 
and is then pushed up 
into the flues by the 
heavier cold air which 
comes in from outdoors 
through the cold-air in¬ 
let flue. The smoke, of 
course, goes up the chim¬ 
ney. The warm air 
which enters the rooms 
finds an outlet around 
the doors and windows. 
—^Pupil’s Theme 



































EXPLANATION AND ESSAY 


167 


Practice 2 

What is the point of this explanation? What illustrations help 
to make the point clear? 

The Golden Rule by itself is no adequate law of life, and a world 
in which everybody kept it need not be Paradise at all. It might just 
as well be a nightmare of a world; for whether it is a good thing for 
you to do to your neighbor what you want your neighbor to do to you, 
depends altogether on what it is that you want your neighbor to do to 
you. Here is a thief, for example, escaping with his loot. He has robbed 
a home of its silver and jewels, and he is making safe getaway with his 
booty on his back. What does he want folks to do to him? He wants 
them to help him get away. There is no kindness quite so great that his 
imagination can conceive as that some one should help him in the salvage 
of his loot. When, therefore, on another night he meets another thief in 
such a case and aids him to escape, is he not keeping the Golden Rule? 
He has done to another just what he wants that other to do to him. 

Or here is another man whose physical life is dominant—a vulgar, 
rough, and brutal temperament, with passions insolent and uncontrolled. 
What does he want folk to do to him? He wants them to minister to 
his basest life, to introduce him to the lowest books, the most shameful 
plays, the foulest places of resort. Those who do that for him he calls 
his friends. When in turn he does for others what he wishes others so to 
do for him, when as a great favor he opens secret doors that he has 
found to some new means of vice, has he not kept the Golden Rule? 
He has done for his friends just what he wants his friends to do for 
him. That is, the Golden Rule provides for the extension to other lives 
of the same standards that you have for yourself, but it makes no pro¬ 
vision whatsoever for the elevation of the standards.^— Harry Emerson 
Fosdick 

3. Explain completely. If an explanation of handball omits 
one necessary direction, it is worthless. If the recipe for a cake 
omits an essential ingredient or process, the cake will be a failure. 

Practice 3 

Show that this explanation is incomplete: 

HOW TO MAKE A DOUBLE DROP 

A double drop is made with two parachutes. The jumper climbs out 
on the wing of the airplane and swings down under it. When ready, 

1A portion of a sermon on the Golden Rule. Reprinted by permission. 


168 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


he releases himself from the airplane and starts his descent to earth. 
After the first parachute has opened, the jumper cuts the rope fastening 
the two chutes together.— Pupil’s Theme 

4. Arrange facts and ideas sensibly. Lead the reader or hearer, 
step by step, from what he knows to related facts or ideas that you 
wish to make clear to him. In explanation of processes—making 
bread, washing dishes, manufacturing hats, or building a house, 
for example—arrange the details in the time order. Working out 
the outline is an important step in the writing of an explanation. 

5. Use connective words to show the relation between the 'parts of 
the explanation. If the parts are not linked together, the explana¬ 
tion seems disjointed. 

6. Fit your vocabulary to your audience or readers. Substitute 
a simple word for a word that will not be understood. Avoid or 
explain technical terms if your audience or readers do not under¬ 
stand them. In talking about your radio set to boys who have 
built their own sets, you can use terms that in a speech to your 
class on the subject would confuse most of your hearers. 

7. Go straight to the point. Avoid unnecessary words and round¬ 
about expressions. A pointed, terse introduction arouses interest 
in a subject and leads into it. A lengthy, roundabout, wordy, 
useless introduction wastes time and kills interest. 

8. Use an illustration, a diagram, a sketch, or a chart if it makes 
the subject clearer. In directing an automobilist on a route that 
has many curves and corners, diagram the route; appeal to both 
eye and ear. 

Practice 4 

Do the illustration and diagrams make the following explana¬ 
tion clearer? 

HOW TO MAKE AN ATTRACTIVE APRON 

1. Usefulness of an attractive apron 

2. Materials, cutting, and sewing 

The labor of attending to a summer garden is somewhat lessened by 
knowing that one is charmingly dressed in a simple one-third morning 
apron. The simplicity of shape aids the unskilled needlewoman. 


EXPLANATION AND ESSAY 


169 


The necessary materials are three yards of fine 
unbleached muslin, one yard of cretonne or flowered 
chintz, one skein of blue embroidery silk, and a large 
sheet of wrapping paper. Lay the wrapping paper 
on a flat surface and cut as in diagram A to suit the 
necessary size. The dotted lines mark off the back 
pieces. The circular top piece makes the pretty 
sleeve caps pictured, and the opening in the upper 
part forms the neck line. Then lay the pattern on 
the muslin and cut around the outline, allowing 
about one-half inch on the edges for binding. When 
the apron is shaped, slip the garment over the head 
and form the neck line to 
suit the size. Next cut the 
chintz into long bias strips 
about an inch and a half 
wide and bind the arms, 
neck, and hem line. Also 
cut pockets as in diagram 
B and sew on with blue silk. 
A fancy stitch on the neck 
and the sleeves adds to 
the charm of this simple 
apron.— Pupil’s Theme 




9. The jive common methods of explanation are details, examples, 
comparison or contrast, cause and effect, and repetition. Decide 
which of these best suits your purpose. In explaining how to 
mimeograph, it is necessary to make clear such details as cutting 
the stencil, putting the stencil on the mimeograph, applying the 
ink, and running off the copies needed. To explain the present 
importance of cavalry warfare, one might give examples of its use 
in the World War; compare or contrast the usefulness of the cavalry 
and the infantry, artillery, or aviation; or compare or contrast 
the use of cavalry in modern warfare with the use fifty, a hundred, 
or a thousand years ago. A discussion of the causes that have 
made cavalry more or less necessary in an army would throw light 
on the subject. In a speech on the subject repetition of ideas in 
different words might be necessary to make important points clear. 
Repetition for clearness is more often necessary in speech than in 
writing, because a reader has a chance to reread a passage to make 






170 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


sure of the meaning, whereas a listener has no chance to go back. 
The speaker must therefore make*a point absolutely clear before 
he leaves it and should express the same idea in several ways if 
necessary. Repetition of what has been made clear, however, is 
boresome. 


Pkactice 5 

What method of explanation is used in the following exposition? 

JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON 

Hamilton believed in the rule of an aristocracy of money, and Jef¬ 
ferson in a democracy of men. 

Hamilton believed that Governments are created for the domination 
of the masses, and Jefferson that they are created for the service of the 
people. 

Hamilton wrote to Morris that Governments are strong in proportion 
as they are made profitable to the powerful, and Jefferson knew that no 
Government is fit to live that does not conserve the interest of the average 
man. 

Hamilton proposed a scheme for binding the wealthy to the Govern¬ 
ment by maHng Government a source of revenue to the wealthy, and 
Jefferson unfurled his banner of equal rights. 

Hamilton wanted to wipe out the boundary lines of States, and Jeffer¬ 
son was the champion of their sovereign powers. 

Hamilton would have concentrated authority remote from the people, 
and Jefferson would have diffused it among them. 

Hamilton would have injected governmental activities into all the 
affairs of men, and Jefferson laid it down as an axiom of freedom that 
‘‘that government is best which governs least.’’— Claude G. Bowers 


Definition 

A definition, which is an explanation of the meaning of a word, 
should be both clear and concise. Definition by synonyms is the 
supplying of a number of words that mean the same or almost the 
same as the word defined. A logical definition consists of the 
genus or class to which the object belongs and the differentia or 
distinguishing characteristics. 


EXPLANATION AND ESSAY 


171 


Name 

Class 

Particular Qualities 

A bookcase is 

a piece of furniture 

with shelves for holding books 

A tractor is 

a motor-driven machine 

used to draw loads and farm 
machinery 

A niblick is 

a golf club 

with a heavy iron head, much 
lofted, used chiefly in playing 
the ball out of hazards 

A rectangle is 

a parallelogram 

having four right angles 


Pkactice 6 

Write logical definitions of ten of the following words: 

ampere, baseball, thermometer, barometer, table, mashie, umbrella, 
hat, volt, apple, poetry, novel, drama, unity, clause, preposition, airplane, 
dirigible, parachute, hexagon, microscope, starboard. 

There are four common mistakes in defining: 

1. Using in the definition a part of speech different from that 
of the word defined. 

ADJECTIVE NOUN 

(Wrong) Reliable means trust. 

ADJECTIVE ADJECTIVE 

(Right) Reliable means trustworthy. 

NOUN VERB 

(Wrong) Exposition is to explain. 

NOUN NOUN 

(Right) Exposition is explanation. 

2. Selecting a wrong class or incorrect or inaccurate particular 
qualities. 

3. Using in the definition the word defined or a derivative of it. 

(Wrong) A democracy is a country in which the people are democratic. 

(Right) A democracy is a form of government in which the people select 
their own rulers. 

4. In the definition of a term using, after is, a when or where 








172 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


clause. In a correct definition of a term the name of the class 
follows is. Use when for time and where for place. 

(Wrong) A substantive is when a word or a group of words is used as a 
noun. 

(Right) A substantive is a word or a group of words used as a noun. 

Pkactice 7 

What is the mistake in each of the following definitions? Cor¬ 
rect. 

1. A sickle is an instrument used in reaping. 

2. Perceptible is something that may be perceived, 

3. An aerial is a system of wires, suspended at advantageous height 
above the ground, generally cormected to the earth. 

4. A clause is when a part of a sentence has a subject and a predicate. 

5. A bicycle is a machine having two wheels. 

6. Isolation means to place by itself or by oneself. 

7. An adverb is a word that modifies a verb. 

8. A republic is a country that has a republican form of govern¬ 
ment. 

9. A station is where railroad trains regularly stop. 

10. Penury is to be very poor. 

Practice 8 

How many illustrations or comparisons are used in explaining 
the meaning of ginkf In explaining the difference between con¬ 
stancy and consistency? 

WHAT IS A GINK? 

There are terms in all languages for stupid, dull people and for egotists 
terms usually borrowed from the lower animals, as donkey, goose, owl, 
pig, mutton head, and the like; but for the peculiar combination of 
cantankerousness and cussedness found in the kind of people I have in 
mind there is no word; so we have to invent one. Hence, Gink. It is 
absurd, irritating, impossible; consequently it is suitable. 

A Gink is a person who does not consider human values. Anything 
weighs more with such a one than being obliging. A Gink is often polite; 
then he is meanest. To him a rule, or a custom, or number, or any dead 
thing is of more value than a human being. 

Keep track of the Ginks of aU kinds you meet during the day, and then 


EXPLANATION AND ESSAY 


173 


make a calculation of the enormous human energy consumed by en¬ 
countering these clods on the social and business highway. 

The janitor will not sweep up the litter on the back porchway, which 
you made by opening a box that came today, because this is Saturday, 
and he sweeps only Fridays. 

Then there’s the business man who keeps you waiting fifteen minutes 
while he finishes his cigar, so that you will think he is rushed with im.- 
portant affairs. 

And don’t overlook the physician who is discussing baseball in his 
private office with an acquaintance while half a dozen suffering patients 
are sitting funereally in his waiting room. But when you most desire to 
brain the said physician is the time when he stands around and quibbles 
over a point of professional etiquette or “ethics of the profession” while 
your child is sick unto death in the other room. 

To the Ancient and Dishonorable Order of Ginks belong also the officers 
of institutions who observe all kinds of red tape while people are in need 
or in peril. 

Some day you want a check cashed in a hurry. You go to the bank, 
stand in line at the paying teller’s window, and finally in your turn present 
your paper. The teller looks at it. Then some clerk in the next cage 
speaks to him. He goes away and converses pleasantly with his fellow 
clerk while you wait on pins and needles. When he is done talking, he 
returns, and after inspecting his finger nails slowly counts you out your 
money. 

A woman of my acquaintance, my wife, to be exact, once woke one of 
these Bank Ginks up. She had received her money and stepped aside. 
Counting it she saw that the Clerk had made an error. 

“Excuse me,” she said, “you made a mistake in giving me my money.” 

“You’ll have to fall in line, ma’am,” said a policeman. 

And the clerk said, “We never rectify mistakes after the money has 
been taken from the window.” 

“Very well,” was her reply. “Only you gave me $10 too much!” 

That was different. Clerk Gink and Policeman Gink immediately 
climbed down from their high perches and became human and courteous. 
They allowed her, kindly, to rectify the error.— Frank Crane 

CONSTANCY IS MORE THAN CONSISTENCY 

I think that you have misunderstood the Outlook. But I am not con¬ 
cerned to prove that it has been consistent. I agree with Ralph Waldo 
Emerson that “with consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.” 
Constancy is always a virtue; consistency is sometimes a vice. In order 
to be constant to his purpose one may often be, in seeming if not in reality, 
inconsistent in his conduct. Thus in chess one at first takes every pams 


174 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


to save his queen and later deliberately sacrifices her, but is always con¬ 
stant to his purpose to checkmate his opponent; thus a ship constant in 
its aim to reach a given harbor sometimes sails directly away from it in 
beating against an adverse wind; thus Abraham Lincoln was constant to 
his purpose to secure “liberty and union, one and inseparable,” but not 
consistent in his methods. When the New England abolitionists proposed 
to withdraw from the Union to get rid of responsibility for slavery, he 
opposed abolition; and he affirmed repeatedly that he did not propose to 
interfere with slavery in the Slave States .—Outlook 

Practice 9 
A Term 

Explain one of the following terms. Use a number of illustra¬ 
tions. Apply the nine exposition rules. 

1. Patriotism. 2. Snob. 3. Hero. 4. Courage. 5. Tariff for revenue 
only. 6. Protective tariff. 7. Grange. 8. Labor union. 9. Propaganda. 
10. Charity. 11. Radical. 12. Conservative. 13. Progressive. 14. 
Trust. 15. Initiative and referendum. 16. Recall. 17. Self-determina¬ 
tion. 18. Socialism. 19. Democracy. 20. Americanization. 21. Autoc¬ 
racy. 22. Honor. 23. School spirit. 24. Moral courage. 25. Grit. 
26. Communism. 27. Social welfare. 28. Drama. 29. Essay. 30. In¬ 
tegrity. 31. Collective bargaining. 32. Open shop. 33. Fair wage. 
34. Copyright. 35. Reciprocity. 36. Monopoly. 37. Libel. 38. Sissy. 
39. Optimism. 40. Superstition. 41. Culture. 42. Minimum essentials. 

Machines and Processes 

In explaining a manufacturing process, the construction and 
operation of a machine, or the way to do something, commonly 
the best way to arrange material is in the order of time. 

Practice 10 

Explain to the class one of the following. Outline your speech 
and test it by the nine exposition rules. You may draw a diagram 
on the blackboard or bring to class objects, photographs, sketches, 
maps, or the like that will help you to make the explanation clear. 

1. How to play first base, quarterback, center (basketball), or any 
other position on a team. 2. How a man is put out in baseball. 3. How 
the ball is advanced in football. 4. How points are scored in basketball. 


EXPLANATION AND ESSAY 


175 


5. How to play handball. 6. How to play tennis. 7. How to play cap¬ 
tain ball. 8. How to put the shot. 9. How to apply first aid to a broken 
arm. 10. How to take care of a fountain pen, radio set, dress, suit, pair 
of shoes, book, furnace, or lawn. 11. How to build a radio set. 12. How 
to pitch curves. 13. How to prepare oxygen. 14. How a mimeograph 
works. 15. How to make a thermometer. 16. How to play canoe tilting 
(see picture). 17. How to cover a book. 18. How paper is made. 



Courtesy of the German Tourist Information Office 

Canoe Tilting 

19. How rubber is obtained. 20. How sugar is refined. 21. How to care 
for a dog (or another animal). 22. How to punt (see picture). 23. The 
loud speaker. 24. The thermos bottle. 25. An interesting experiment. 

Practice 11 

Write a clear, accurate, and complete explanation of one of the 
following. Apply the nine exposition rules. 

1. How cotton thread is manufactured. 2. How to learn to swim. 
3. How to build a camp fireplace. 4. How glass is made. 5. How to 
make blue prints. 6. How I would like to furnish my room. 7. How to 
care for an automobile. 8. How to make a bed. 9. How an airplane is 
controlled. 10. How to build a bookcase. 11. How electroplating is 




176 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


done. 12. How to make a beaded bag. 13. How to paddle a canoe. 
14. How to make a scarf. 15. Skis and skiing. 16. How a book is bound. 
17. How a dry battery gets its power. 18. How to train a dog. 19. How 
to decorate for Christmas. 20. Radio television. 21. Musical instru¬ 
ments used by an orchestra. 22. How to take care of a garden. 23. How 
to care for a lawn. 24. How to form a habit and how to break a habit. 
25. The most useful (or useless) article I ever made. 26. Why the tele¬ 
phone speaks. 27. The gas engine. 

Facts and Ideas 

In outlining opinions, facts, thoughts, ideas, and theories about 
school, home, friendship, duty, literature, hobbies, and business, 
one has no time order to follow and hence for clearness should 
place first facts that are needed early in the explanation and for 
emphasis should, if possible, place last an important point of 
the explanation. Touches of humor and bits of narration and 
description sometimes make the explanation clearer and more 
interesting. 

Peactice 12 

Explain to the class one of the following. Hand in your outline. 

1. Qualities needed in a football, baseball, or basketball captain. 
2. The best game for high-school boys or girls. Why? 3. Why read 
novels? 4. How to study a spelling lesson. 5. The practical value of 
chemistry. 6. The value of dramatization in the classroom. 7. The 
value of freehand drawing. 8. Why I like history. 9. Characteristic 
American traits. 10. Manners as a business asset. 11. How to read 
current periodicals and books for stimulus, recreation, and culture. 
12. The value of cartoons. 13. The radio as an educator. 14. How to 
choose a college. 15. How to choose a vocation. 16. Why study 
algebra? 17. The best way to spend a summer vacation. 18. Health 
conservation. 19. Types of students. 

Practice 13 

Write a clear and complete explanation of one of the following. 
Which of the nine exposition rules have you applied? 

1. Why study English? 2. My ideal day. 3. How to listen to music. 
4. What I intend to become and why? 5. My faults in writing and 
speaking. 6. Why read biography? 7. My hobby. 8. Ways of helping 


EXPLANATION AND ESSAY 


177 



Acme News 

Bill Banker, the Blond Blizzard 
The star of Tulane University getting off a long punt. 

pupils in their first term in high school. 9. An ideal friend. 10. In¬ 
fluence of newspapers on people. 11. Control of street traffic. 12, Re¬ 
sponsibilities of a high-school student. 13. How to study. 14. How 
to write a good composition. 15. The problem of the unemployed. 
16. Imagination in business. 17. How I prepare a speech. 18. How to 






178 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


prevent fires. 19. Dangers to the home. 20. Canine expression of 
ideas and emotion. 21. How to read poetry. 22. The disadvantages of 
the so-called white collar jobs. 23. Good citizenship in high school. 
24. Proper social life for a high-school student. 25. The value of extra¬ 
curricular activities. 26. Why some boys and girls in business are never 
promoted. 27. Good English as a business asset. 28. A college education 
as a preparation for business. 29. How to increase one’s vocabulary. 
30. ‘‘Blind-alley” jobs. 31. How to get the most out of high school. 
32. Changes that the invention of the automobile has made in everyday 
life. 

Character Sketch 

Without making the explanation dull, mechanical, or stereo¬ 
typed, one who writes a character sketch should mention the 
chief traits of the person and illustrate or prove them. As there 
is often a relation between appearance and character, descriptive 
sentences may be used to illustrate traits and make the sketch 
more vivid. Because the best evidence about the character of a 
person is what he does, what he says, what others say about him, 
and what effect he has on others, bits of narration may be used to 
prove or illustrate a characteristic. 

Support all general statements with concrete and specific 
incidents. In the conclusion refer to the things for which the 
person is best remembered. 

Practice 14 

Selecting an unusual or striking person you know, write an 
entertaining and vivid character sketch. 

Example of a character sketch based on a hook: 

Brutus was a man of strength and courage. His outstanding trait was 
a deep love for his country, a love which influenced all his thoughts and 
actions. Because of it he entered the conspiracy against Csesar, an act 
which cost him untold mental agony, for Brutus had a great affection for 
that peerless general and statesman, and it was only after a long and 
weary struggle between the natural desire for happiness and his duty to 
Rome that he finally decided to sacrifice Caesar, his best friend, on the 
altar of liberty. But it must not be supposed that Brutus regarded the 
situation with the wild and distorted vision of a fanatic. On the contrary, 
he weighed the possibihties with a fair and judicial mind before he reached 


EXPLANATION AND ESSAY 


179 


the stupendous decision which brought him so much sorrow. Therefore 
let no man say that Brutus was prompted by personal ambition, nor yet 
moved by fear. That he was both determined and courageous is proved 
by the fact that he remained firm in his resolve even though he probably 
foresaw the disastrous result of his action. 

But Brutus was not all cold sternness and forbidding frowns; he had a 
gentle side to his nature, which made him at once loving and lovable. 
Although we are not very familiar with his softer moods, we know from 
his speech and actions that he was both kind and considerate. He re¬ 
frained from telling his wife, Portia, of his trouble, because he was un¬ 
willing to cause her pain and anxiety. He felt deep and lasting sorrow at 
her death, the silent grieving that only strong men experience. Brutus 
was truly a strong man, one who was loved by his friends and respected 
by his enemies.— Pupil’s Theme 


Practice 15 

1. Write an entertaining and convincing character sketch based on a 
book you are studying or reading. 

2. Compare two characters in one book or in different books. In what 
respects are they alike? How do they differ? 

Example of character sketches based on a hook: 

In Paradise Lost Milton makes Satan the most interesting character. 
Satan’s passion for freedom, his ambition, and his tireless persistence 
in seeking revenge make him a character that we cannot easily forget. 
Milton’s description of Hell is so vivid and so horrible that we feel Satan 
is justified in revolting against the all powerful heavens. I could not 
help but admire Satan for the courageous manner with which he tried 
to get even with the Lord. We shall have to admit he was no coward. 
After the fallen angels had held a council of war and had decided to 
destroy God’s prized creation, man, Satan it was who volunteered to 
go on this mission. He never faltered nor flinched in his purpose, al¬ 
though he was exposed to constant dangers in getting to the earth and 
to the wrath of the heavens after he got there. Satan’s soul, however, 
is not so black that he cannot appreciate anything beautiful. As he 
journeys through space in search of the earth, he discovers a brilliant 
light from afar, which he finds to be the gates to Heaven. The sight 
is so beautiful that Satan, for the time being, wishes that he were back 
within those heavenly gates, friendly with the Lord. Then, again, when 
he visits the garden of Eden to tempt Eve with the forbidden fruit, he 
forgets his evil intentions for the moment, so wrapt is he in the loveli- 


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ness of Eve, the perfect woman. I don’t know why Milton stressed the 
character of Satan so much. Perhaps he wanted to bring out the idea 
that good and bad cannot be entirely separated. No man’s heart is so 
hard that it softens at nothing. 

Adam and Eve in this poem did not seem human enough. I came 
to like them better, however, in their state of guilt. In their state of 
innocence, they were too perfect to be interesting. How monotonous 
life must have been for them with nothing to worry about, with no dan¬ 
gers, and with nothing to do but to be good! After they had tasted 
the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge they seemed more human. They 
quarreled and blamed each other for tasting the forbidden fruit. The 
way Adam “took down” his wife rather amused me. Lamenting that 
women were ever born, he said they were the cause of all trouble. I 
have the feeling that Milton did not think of women very highly. Eve 
is portrayed as the submissive type who the Lord says is to obey Adam 
absolutely. Her personality was too vague and too indefinite. Adam 
is characterized as the patriarchal father, who has the “say so” about 
everything. He was typical of the fathers in Milton’s time. 

The ending of Paradise Lost could be interpreted in two ways, accord¬ 
ing to the reader’s sympathies. In a sense it was a tragedy, in that the 
race of men was lost by Adam’s and Eve’s disobedience. Then, again, 
the story was a triumph if you look at it from Satan’s point of view. He 
succeeded in getting revenge, although at his own expense, for he and 
his followers were all turned into snakes. Though at first my sympa¬ 
thies were with Satan, I changed at the end. I felt rather sorry that 
Adam and Eve had to leave beautiful Paradise.— Pupil’s Theme 


CHAPTER X 


REVIEW, ESSAY, CLASSBOOK 

CRITICISM OR REVIEW 

Why do magazines and newspapers print pages of reviews of 
books, talking pictures, plays, operas, art exhibits, concerts, and 
recitals? Of what use are book reviews? By helping us to decide 
what books we ought to read and by giving us information about 
the books we do not have time to read, reviewers make us more 
intelligent about books of the day. In the field of contemporary 
literature reviews are as useful as a history of literature is in the 
realm of older books: they guide and inform. And well-written 
book reviews are also entertaining. 

Just as the person ^ho knows the fine points of the game gets 
more fun out of a baseball or football game than the one who only 
half understands it, so one who appreciates artistry in writing gets 
a keener and higher pleasure than one who reads only for the story 
or ideas. Likewise the fact that a person is preparing to give 
an oral or written review of a book stimulates him to watch for evi¬ 
dence that the book is (or is not) well written and worth reading. 

The job of the critic is to find out what the author was trying 
to do and whether or not he succeeded. The topics of a review 
vary with the type of book read. A fiction or drama report may 
be a discussion of a number of these topics: setting (time, place, 
atmosphere), harmony between characters and background of 
environment, plot, scenes that would be effective on the stage, 
incidents, characters, character portrayal and development, 
theme or central idea, relation of theme to contemporary life, 
suspense, foreshadowing, introduction, conclusion, surprise, con¬ 
trast, chmaxes, words added to reader’s vocabulary, clearness, 
force, and beauty of style, probability, relation of major plot to 
minor plot, methods of gaining a semblance of reality, mystery, 
movement of the story, pathos, humor, thought-nuggets, quota¬ 
tions, evidence of the author’s character and personality, the best 

181 


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part of the story, reasons for liking or disliking the book, compari¬ 
sons with other books by the same author or by other authors. 
That is a long list. Of course, no book review includes a discussion 
of aU these topics. It is better by use of incidents, illustrations, 
and citations to prove three or four points than to mention and 
discuss vaguely a dozen. A pointed reason for liking or not liking 
the book or recommending or not recommending it makes an 
effective ending of a report. 

Many of the topics given under fiction and drama may be used 
in a report on poetry. Other topics often discussed are the sound 
(meter, rhyme, rhythm, onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, 
most melodious lines), pictures, feelings expressed by the poet or 
aroused in the reader, lines worth remembering, word choice. 
The qualities which make good poetry are beauty of theme, 
imagination, emotion, sound, and diction. 

A report on a biography should tell what the person discussed 
has done for the world, what he has added to the available hope, 
goodness, beauty, knowledge, or contentment. Useful topics are 
the lasting work done by the subject of the biography, his early 
experiences as preparation for his life work, his traits, his ideals, 
his helps in achieving success, his handicaps or hardships, beauty 
of the author's style, clearness, force, the fairness and accuracy 
of the biographer, a comparison with other biographies, and 
reasons for liking or disliking the book. 

For a report on a volume of essays, letters, or orations good 
topics are the author's purpose, traits of author shown, his style, 
his mood, humor, especially entertaining parts, main thought of 
each essay, letter, or oration, ideas worth remembering, sentences 
worth memorizing, words added to reader's vocabulary, a compari¬ 
son with other books, reasons for liking or disliking the book. 

“THE AMATEUR GENTLEMAN" 

1. A dashing, romantic, chivalrous son of a gentlewoman and a boxer 

2. A remarkable hero 

3. Something of interest to every one 

We have all been stirred to admiration by the glorious deeds of the 
knights of old. We have all thrilled at the description of hand-to-hand 


REVIEW, ESSAY, CLASSBOOK 


183 


battles and narrow escapes. But how many of us have ever thought of a 
knight without armor, a dashing, romantic, chivalrous hero whose father 
called him ‘‘The Amateur Gentleman”? Such a hero has Jeffery Farnol 
made of Barnabas Barty, the son of a gentlewoman and a boxer. 

Barnabas, heir to an enormous fortune, after leaving his father’s 
tavern in order to become a London gentleman, has a truly remarkable 
career. The book runs the whole gamut of human emotions. Love, hate, 
jealousy, friendship, filial loyalty, and youthful self-confidence—^all 
intermingle to make “The Amateur Gentleman” and his friends living, 
breathing human beings. 

In the book there is something of interest to every one. For those who 
like duels, surely no duel could be more hair-raising than the one which 
Barnabas and Chichester fight across the table. For those who prefer 
romance, the youthful love of Barnabas and the Lady Cleone is a perfect 
tale. No matter what you seek—avarice, mystery, humor, or any other 
element of a good story—you will find it in this book. There is even a 
highly successful detective in the person of the iron-hatted Mr. Shrig, 
whose best case is ruined because of his friendship for Barnabas.—■ 
Pupil’s Theme 


HER WORLD 

Claire Ambler. By Booth Tarkington. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co. 

1928 . $ 2 . 50 . 

Reviewed hy Grace Frank 

The innocuous far niente of an Atlantic liner would seem to provide a 
perfect setting for the reading of this novel. An engagingly light tale, 
with an old-fashioned treatment—^in a good sense—of a new-fashioned 
theme—also in a good sense, it never penetrates that theme so deeply as 
to be uncomfortable but just deeply enough to impress the reader pleasantly 
with its accuracy. One’s chief quarrel with Mr. Tarkington is that he 
did not say more when he knew so much. 

Claire Ambler’s universe is one-dimensional, bounded on all sides by 
Claire Ambler. The feelings she arouses in others are of no concern to her 
except in so far as they satisfy her desire to please any man who happens 
to be adjacent at the moment. We first meet her at eighteen, nonchalant 
and provocative, ineffectively trying to pull her scant, short skirt over 
her thin knees and effectively making every boy within reach give her a 
good time. We last see her at twenty-five walking to the altar with 
beautifully calculated smiles and steps, and meditating upon the prob¬ 
able effects of the light from a stained-glass window which will pres¬ 
ently fall upon her wedding gown. Between these two ages she has 
casually inflicted great suffering on two good men who have loved 
her and has herself experienced considerable grief at losing one of them, 


184 


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not, however, without half-consciously playing the role of tragedy-queen 
for the benefit of an attractive stranger conveniently at hand to observe 
her. 

Mr. Tarkington’s revelation of what goes on behind the inarticulateness 
of the adolescent male and the volubility of the adolescent female is 
wholly delightful. Young Nelson’s difficulty in attaching Claire firmly 
and exclusively to himself, his unreasonable and foolhardy efforts to 
impress her, Claire’s instinctively ingratiating responses to her young 
admirer the while her mind is more seriously preoccupied with the im¬ 
portant business of deciding which gown to wear at a dance—all these 
earlier scenes in the book are in the author’s best vein. . . . 

But Claire Ambler is not a pendant to Penrod or Seventeen and never 
approaches Alice Adams in substantiality. The final impression of the 
book is of something slight and thin where fullness and rotundity were 
obviously demanded and deserved. There are indications that the 
author intended Claire to become less hollow than she turned out to be, 
but that her empty head and careless heart circumvented the intention. 
On those rare occasions when she soliloquizes about the futility of her 
existence, sees her “artistic” feigning for what it is, or forgets herself and 
thinks of some one else, she hardly seems quite herself. Nevertheless the 
book is eminently readable. It moves swiftly and easily on the lightest 
of rails, and carries one from Maine to Sicily and back to New York with 
the deftness of an experienced courier.— The Saturday Review of Literature 

Pkactice 1 

Clip from a magazine or a newspaper a good book review and paste it 
on a sheet of paper. Then beside the review write a list of the topics the 
critic discusses and tell why you think the review a good one. 

Practice 2 

Write a clear, convincing, and entertaining review of a book you 
have read recently. For your paragraph outline use a number of the 
topics given in the discussion of book reviews. Avoid trite phrases by 
telling directly and pointedly why you like or dislike the book. 

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD 

To all lovers of adventure and romance To Have and To Hold, a 
story of early days in Virginia, seasoned here and there with interest¬ 
ing bits of history, will have a tremendous appeal. Written by one 
of the most skillful modern writers of historical fiction, Mary John¬ 
ston, it presents a glowing picture of those days when a few scattered 


REVIEW, ESSAY; CLASSBOOK 


185 


Englishmen, gathered around the unfortunate colony of Jamestown, alone 
represented their nation on the great new continent of North America. 
The story itself relates the adventures of a certain soldier tobacco-planter 
who journeyed to Jamestown one morning to purchase a wife from that 
historic cargo of maids, sent to fill the homes of the almost womanless land. 
How by a valiant rescue and a hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco he 
won his lady, and how he kept her, in the face of almost unconquerable 
odds, I shall not spoil the story by attempting to tell.— Pupil’s Theme 

INFORMAL OR FAMILIAR ESSAY 

The word essay is used loosely as a synonym of theme or com¬ 
position. The definition in The Winston Simplified Dictionary is 
“a thoughtful composition, written with a view to interpreting 
or analyzing its subject as understood by the author, and display¬ 
ing some literary merit.” 

Although essays are commonly divided into the formal and the 
informal or familiar, no sharp dividing line can be drawn between 
the two types. The formal essay is usually an orderly, logical, 
impersonal, instructive treatment of a subject. Carlyle’s ‘‘Essay 
on Burns,” Arnold’s “Wordsworth,” Ruskin’s “Of Queens’ 
Gardens,” Emerson’s “Compensation,” “Manners,” and “Self- 
Reliance,” Lowell’s “Shakespeare Once More,” Macaulay’s “Life 
of Johnson,” and “Milton,” and Palmer’s “Self-Cultivation in 
English” are formal essays often studied in high school. 

Of the informal or familiar essay Mr. A. C. Benson says, “The 
true essay, then, is a tentative and personal treatment of a sub¬ 
ject; it is a kind of improvisation on a delicate theme; a species of 
soliloquy, as if a man were to speak aloud the slender and whimsi¬ 
cal thoughts that come into his mind when he is alone on a winter 
evening before a warm fire, and, closing his book, abandons him¬ 
self to the luxury of genial reverie.” He adds that the familiar 
essay is natural, clear, and rambling. 

Some one has called “I” the most interesting subject in the 
world; “You,” the second in interest; and “The Rest,” a poor 
third. And because we greatly enjoy not only talking about our¬ 
selves but also hearing the other fellow talk about himself, the 
personal note in the informal essay is a most attractive feature. 


186 


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To write an informal essay one needs to have an interesting or 
unusual idea and to tell it skillfully. Of the subject matter Charles 
S. Brooks says, “Pieces of this and that, an odd carrot, as it were, 
a left-over potato, a pithy bone, discarded trifles, are tossed in 
from time to time to feed the composition.^^ The following titles 
of excellent informal essays by Chesterton, Lucas, Morley, Brooks, 
Stevenson, Lamb, Hunt, Colby, Crothers, titter, Warner, and 
others suggest that essays of this type need not have weighty 
subject matter: “Lamp-Posts,’^ “On Pigs as Pets,” “My Friend 
Flora,” “Aunts,” “On Unanswering Letters,” “On a Rainy 
Morning,” “An Apology for Idlers,” “The Character of Dogs,” 
“A Dissertation on Roast Pig,” “Poor Relations,” “Asking for a 
Raise,” “A Defense of Whisthng,” “Pet Economies,” “The Bad 
Results of Good Habits,” “On Adopting One’s Parents,” “Furnace 
and I,” “Man’s Last Embellishment” (the necktie), “On Noses,” 
“Amenities of Street-Car Travel,” “On Running after One’s Hat,” 
“On Getting up on Cold Mornings,” “The People Next Door,” 
“On Lying in Bed,” “On Certain Things to Eat,” “Cows,” “On 
Doors,” “Every Man’s Natural Desire to Be Somebody Else,” 
“The Pup-Dog,” “Chewing Gum,” “Thoughts in the Subway,” 
and “Tadpoles.” 

To express this interesting or unusual idea skillfully, takes time. 
Brooks says, “Essayists, as a rule, chew their pencils.” Because 
the writer’s purpose is to entertain and in a lesser degree to in¬ 
struct, he uses a personal, familiar, individual, easy, graceful, 
conversational style, makes free use of quotations and illustra¬ 
tions, and rambles from his point if the digression is enticing and 
has even a rather remote relationship to his theme. Because the 
essayist has the greatest freedom, he may stop his discussion at 
any moment for an anecdote, an experience, a word picture, or a 
bit of humor or pathos if this entertains and throws light on the 
discussion. The successful informal essayist writes as one 
talks at his best to a friend, and is so good-humored, fair, frank, 
sincere, reasonable, and entertaining that his readers learn his 
whims, foibles, experiences, mistakes, blunders, likes, dislikes, 
and prejudices, feel his mood, sense his personality, and think of 
him as a new and dehghtful friend. 


REVIEW, ESSAY, CLASSBOOK 


187 


THE RESPONSIBILITY OF BEING A PERFECT BABY 

Did you ever contemplate the responsibilities that a baby has from 
the ga-ga stage to the time of his enrollment in kindergarten? The baby 
who shoulders the most responsibility is not the first but the last in a 
large family—for have not all before him been perfect? He must try to 
excel them. If his brothers and sisters gurgled when chucked under the 
chin by some playful friend of the family, he, of course, must do likewise; 
only more vigorously must he ga and coo. 

When his spinster aunt exclaims, “Isn’t it too sweet for words?” or “I 
could hug it to death,” he must not be indignant that Aunty considers 
him sexless, but must gurgle long but not loudly, punctuating the gurgles 
with ga-ga, ar-ar, or anything that sounds similar to Aunty. This will 
please her so much that a woolly bowwow or a dollar towards baby’s 
college education fund will be the result. If baby performs flawlessly, 
undoubtedly he will be the proud possessor of both. 

When company comes, he must realize that he is on exhibition, that 
his position in the family, that of the perfect baby, must be upheld. He 
must allow all present to fondle him; he must suppress his desire for the 
dangling cherries on Mrs. Brown’s hat, grandpa’s beard, and the little 
girl’s red braids and freckles. 

At baptism he must remember not to disgrace his family. No matter 
how insistently his fingers urge him to clutch the minister’s hair, or how 
badly he wants to scream, he must make his fingers behave and his voice 
be still for the honor of the family! Thus Sunday and other days from 
his morning bath to his bedtime must he remember that he is the perfect 
baby.— Pupil’s Theme 


THE INVADERi 
By Edith Fox 

Just a few years ago—surely you remember the great event—there 
was born an ugly, perverse, and extraordinarily noisy infant whose arrival 
excited the entire world, and in whose growth was manifested a universal 
interest despite the many faults discovered in the youngster from the 
first. His ugliness was not repugnant—interesting, rather; his perversity 
was excused with extreme toleration, and his noisiness was his greatest 
charm. Almost immediately he became the spoiled darling of people all 
over the globe. Although he has grown with unusual rapidity during the 
few years of his existence, and although he has become far less ugly than 
he used to be, his character has remained unchanged. He is still obstinate, 
clamorous, and rude, and, a not unusual accompaniment to these traits, 

1 Winner of the first prize in an Atlantic Monthly national contest. Reprinted 
by permission. 


188 


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precocious too. At times, though, he is really artistic. But just as his 
wisdom is uttered always at the wrong moment, when every one is tired 
and dull, so too the beautiful thoughts and exquisite melodies that occur 
to him when in certain moods are expressed never at the right time, 
always when people feel gay and boisterous and are impatient of anything 
verging on the serious. A most annoying child, but extremely popular 
notwithstanding. 

Are you eager to tell a story or a joke? Immediately, this ill-bred crea¬ 
ture, without apology, will interrupt you. And somehow—strange an¬ 
noying thought—somehow, your audience seems to prefer listening to 
him rather than to you. If, however, you do become really interested in 
what the child is saying, he will stop in the middle of his talk, and all the 
pleading in the world will not induce him to continue. You know him 
well, doubtlessly, but if there is any one so fortunate as to be unacquainted 
with him, let me introduce my immortal enemy—Radio. 

Yes—enemy. Oh, of course, I was thrilled in the beginning, just as 
thrilled as you were when you listened in for the first time. Of course, 
I consider this a wonderful age; I am much too young to think otherwise. 
Of course, I think this is a remarkable, a momentous invention. Neverthe¬ 
less, I have a strong antipathy for radios—electric sets, crystal sets, 
twenty-bulb sets, two-bulb sets, big beautifully decorated sets, little ugly 
sets—I despise them all. 

Always, always, from the very moment when you awaken in the morn¬ 
ing to the “one-two-three-four” of the man who is directing the morning 
exercises until the time you retire at night when somebody or other is 
trying to get distant stations, always it is radio, radio, radio! Perhaps 
you are going to visit some relative whose radio is broken, and whose 
home is in an isolated section, so you are confident that at least for a few 
hours your weary ears will find repose. Even then your troubles are not 
over. All the optimism in the world cannot conceal the fact that the only 
topic of conversation, the only possible topic, is radio, radio, radio! 

Never can you get away from it. Orpheus himself, were he living to¬ 
day, would, in all probability, let flow his magic notes from Station WEAF 
every Friday night. Still, then he could have broadcast his beautiful 
music to Eurydice, so that there would have been no temptation to look 
back and the lovers would have lived happily ever after. And Hamlet— 
how he could have tormented the King and Queen if the play had been 
given over the radio, with its appropriately weird moans and sighs adding 
much to the effect. How that radio would have haunted those guilty 
creatures even as it haunts innocent folk today, even as it is haunting me 
this very minute. 

For I cannot possibly write this thing while our radio is squeaking and 
howling and growling and grunting and trying with so much zest to sur¬ 
pass the radio next door. There, I have turned the obstreperous thing o£^ 


189 


REVIEW, ESSAY, CLASSBOOK 

but what’s the use?—I can hear the Joneses’ hoarse radio howling un¬ 
restrainedly as loudly as I heard ours before. And when the five Joneses 
and their six guests depart in their five-passenger Nash, we shall surely 
be able to hear the Greenes’ radio, which was drowned out by the Joneses’ 
before. Or if, for some urgent reason—it would have to be a very urgent 
one—the Greenes stop theirs, old Mr. Thomas, the celebrated philanthro¬ 
pist, will play his as loudly as possible, not because he likes it, but because 
he thinks that, since it is the finest radio on the block, he will give the 
neighbors a treat. And this used to be a respectable residential section 
in a quiet little suburb. What a sad change, indeed! 

But then, if you stuff your ears with cotton, betake yourself to the little 
room up in the attic, close all the windows, and hum loudly enough to 
drown out most other sounds, you will find that the commotion is less 
harassing. Unfortunately, however, one cannot always go to “some high 
lonely tower.” Suppose you are visiting a radio fan, or being visited by 
one. What then? If, when you are the host, another station interferes, 
and no matter how you twist and turn the dial you cannot get back to the 
former one, you must be perfectly willing to hear Mrs. Eetwel talk on 
good health. Or, if you are the visitor, you must listen attentively, smile 
good-naturedly at the shrieking and groaning, and politely express your 
keen enjoyment of the performance. Yes, you must even listen carefully 
to a two-hour talk by some noted statesman who is discussing something 
about which no one cares. The higher his official position, the quieter 
you must be. Thus it follows that if the President is speaking you dare 
not even move around in your chair, or sneeze, or clear your throat; 
that is, unless you can bear the awful piercing looks directed at you by 
every one present. And if an unusually brilliant remark—one that would, 
in your opinion, make a splendid beginning for an interesting conversation 
like those of the good old pre-radio days—should occur to you, banish 
it from your mind immediately, and pay strict attention to the well- 
known Ernest Hare, who is asking his witty friend Billy Jones who that 
lady was with whom the said Billy was walking down the street that very 
afternoon. Nor must one dare to heave a sigh of relief when the last 
“good-nighty—^nighty-night—good-night” has been gayly sung by this 
famous pair. Certainly they are entertaining. But—to go through that 
same performance week after week for all these years! Enough, and 
more than enough, say I. 

But many really excellent performances are given over the radio, you 
will tell me. So they are. Take operas and concerts, for instance. Even 
if the telephone doesn’t ring and keep you during most of the second act 
of Alda, and if no S 0 S interrupts, and if the radio is not hoarse, and if no 
other station interferes (of course, if all these “ifs” came true, we should 
almost have reached Utopia), still that opera is not really Aida, not the 
Alda you know and love. How can it be when you are sitting at home 


190 


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in plain everyday clothes, while the dishes are clattering in the kitchen, 
and while Jim walks about complaining because you won’t let him listen 
to the fight on WRS instead? There is not the same keen emotion which 
you feel on being a part of that romantic setting in the magnificent opera 
house. There are no glittering lights, no new eager and happy faces. 
You cannot see the artists, nor do their voices sound as clear and rich. 
All atmosphere is lacking. There is not the same intense rapture which 
comes over you, holding you spellbound for that moment when the 
curtain has just risen and the silence becomes intense, and then a poign¬ 
antly beautiful stream of music flows forth. 

Something very beautiful is rapidly being displaced by this shrill, 
harsh instrument that has suddenly invaded our homes. Of course, we 
must pay a great price for every step of progress we take. When autoc¬ 
racy was overthrown, much of the beauty and art that had existed under 
the old regime was abandoned with it. The same sad truth is told by 
Goldsmith in his Deserted Village. Something must be surrendered for 
the sake of advancement. It has always been so. It is the law of civiliza¬ 
tion. Already we are paying for this latest acquisition to progress, and 
the purchasers seem, for the most part, satisfied. The few miserly ones 
who consider the price exorbitant must nevertheless contribute their 
share, and all they can say as they surrender what they consider their 
greatest wealth is: “Vale, ‘calm peace and quiet’!”— Bay Ridge High 
School, Brooklyn 


Practice 3 

Write an informal essay on a topic or your own choice, but 
choose one that gives you a chance to write about your experience, 
observation, reading, or thinking. Perhaps the topics already 
mentioned or those listed below may suggest something that you 
would like to write about. 

TOPICS IN BOOKS OF ESSAYS WRITTEN BY TWO HIGH-SCHOOL CLASSES 

1. Taking care of the home grounds. 2. Gardens. 3. Butterflies as 
art material. 4. Erecting an aerial. 5. Fire! 6. The joys of econo¬ 
mizing. 7. Riding on the elevated. 8. Entertaining at sister’s eight- 
year-old party. 9. Experiences of a straphanger. 10. Imps of Satan. 
11. Some queer neighbors. 12. Gossip. 13. Thoughts on entering a 
library. 14. Fire appliances. 15. Bygones. 16. Hobbies. 17. On writ¬ 
ing an essay. 18. Drawing. 19. When I was very young. 20. The radio. 
21. Hands. 22. On getting packed. 23. On eyebrows. 24. Morning ex¬ 
ercise. 25. Painting. 26. A rainy night. 27. A kitten’s adventures in 
contentment. 28. On smoking. 29. On mothers. 30. Browsing in a 


REVIEW, ESSAY, CLASSBOOK 191 

library. 31. On knowing customers. 32. The top gallery at an opera. 
33. On wearing new clothes. 34. On what my dog has taught me. 
35. On applying for a position. 36. On installing a radio. 37. Voices 
of the woodland. 38. Noises of the city. 39. Hitch-hiking. 40. Types 
of character I met on a mountain. 41. In defense of day-dreaming. 
42. A rainy day. 43. On friendship. 44. Garden friends. 45. Camping 
out during a storm. 

CLASSBOOK 

How Prepared 

In preparing a classbook, each pupil writes a chapter on some 
subtopic of the large subject chosen by the class. Editors, elected 
or appointed, cooperate with the teacher in planning, supervising, 
and criticizing. The completed book may be prepared in a day 
and put aside when it has served its purpose, or it may be the work 
of a half-term and give evidence of the collection of material from 
books, magazines, and people, of systematic class planning, of 
careful writing, and of thorough revision. A preface, illustrations, 
and a cover design make this term book more attractive. The 
typewritten or pen-written book, either bound or placed in a 
spring-back magazine holder, may be added to the school hbrary. 

Uniformity 

After the broad subject has been decided upon and a subtopic 
selected by each pupil or assigned to each, the class may work out 
a uniform outline to be used in every chapter, and decide just how 
the work is to be arranged, how the source of information taken 
from a book or magazine is to be indicated, and what topics are 
to be treated in the preface. For example, one class preparing a 
book on vocations decided that each pupil should write on these 
topics: (1) work, (2) opportunities in the field, (3) remuneration, 
(4) preparation, (5) qualities of a successful worker, (6) advantages 
and disadvantages of the occupation. Topics considered but re¬ 
jected were the effect of the occupation upon a person, opportuni¬ 
ties for service to the community, methods of entering occupation, 
and opinions of those in it. The class decided that the first falls 
under (6); the second, under (2); the third, under (4); and the 
fourth, probably under (6). The class voted also to have two 


192 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


introductory chapters on the topics, “How to Choose a Vocation^^ 
and “How to Succeed in a Vocation.” 

Vocations 

1. Accountancy. 2. Advertising. 3. Agriculture. 4. Architecture. 
5. Army. 6. Authorship. 7. Aviation. 8. Biology. 9. Banking. 
10. Carpentry. 11. Ceramics. 12. Chemical engineering. 13. Chemis¬ 
try. 14. Civil engineering. 15. Civil service. 16. Commerce. 17. Cos¬ 
tume designing. 18. Dentistry. 19. Domestic science. 20. Electrical 
engineering. 21. Electrician. 22. Filing. 23. Foreign service. 24. 
Forestry. 25. Horticulture. 26. Industrial engineering. 27. Insurance. 
28. Journalism. 29. Landscape gardening. 30. Law. 31. Librarian. 
32. Literature. 33. Machinery. 34. Manufacturing. 35. Marine en¬ 
gineering. 36. Mechanical engineering. 37. Medicine. 38. Merchant. 
39. Metallurgical engineering. 40. Mining engineering. 41. Music. 
42. Nursing. 43. Optician (optometry). 44. Oratory. 45. Osteopathy. 
46. Painting. 47. Pharmacy. 48. Photography. 49. Plumbing. 50. 
Private secretary. 51. Railroading. 52. Real estate. 53. Salesmanship. 
54. Sanitary engineering. 55. Social service. 56. Stenography and type¬ 
writing. 57. Teaching. 58. Theology. 59. Truck gardening. 60. Vet¬ 
erinary surgery. 61. Wireless. 

Speaking before Writing 

As you gather material for your chapter of the term book, get 
ready to speak to the class on the subject. After your speech jot 
down every criticism of the teacher or a pupil and think how you 
can make the written chapter better than the oral one. Before 
writing, ask youself these questions: (1) Do I thoroughly under¬ 
stand my subject? (2) Can I secure additional specific information 
from people or books? (3) Did I use in my speech any facts, 
figures, quotations, or illustrations that are off the subject? 
(4) Were the ideas in each paragraph sensibly arranged? (5) What 
was worst about my speech? 

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING 
Bibliography 

1. Engineering as a Profession —McCullough 

2. Profitable Vocations for Boys —Weaver 

3. Vocational Guidance for the Professions 


193 


REVIEW, ESSAY, CLASSBOOK 

4. Occupations —Gowin and Wheatley 

5. Engineering as a Career —Prominent Engineers 

Work of an electrical engineer. In treating the different branches of 
engineering, it is difficult to keep the subjects from overlapping. Thus, 
electrical engineering and mechanical engineering are two distinct branches 
of the profession, but an electrical engineer must have for a background 
a knowledge of mechanical engineering, and a mechanical engineer must 
be familiar with the work of the electrical engineer. But there are certain 
kinds of work which distinctly call for the services of an electrical engineer. 
Any work which deals with the design, manufacture, installation, or 
operation of electrical machinery comes under the supervision of an 
electrical engineer. He also supervises the construction and operation 
of electric railroads and traction lines, electric light plants, and telegraph 
and telephone lines. 

Opportunities in the field. The work of an electrical engineer is extensive 
and varied. If a man has any technical ability, he can secure a position 
in some one of these various branches soon after his graduation. If one is 
lucky enough to graduate in a busy season when engineers are in great 
demand, one can often secure a good position before graduation. There 
are some who say that the field is greatly overcrowded, but they are mis¬ 
taken. The market is flooded with draftsmen and electricians who pose 
as electrical engineers, but the demand for well-trained engineers, men 
who have the theory to back up their practical knowledge, is still greater 
than the supply. 

There is another possibility which must be considered; namely, in¬ 
vention. If a boy has inventive genius or originality, the engineering 
profession is the place for him. Great progress in dealing with electricity 
has been made in the last twenty years, and it is not unreasonable to 
suppose that still greater progress will be made in the next decade. Nat¬ 
urally, it will be the electrical engineers, those men who are confronted 
with the problems of electricity in their daily work, who by their inven¬ 
tions and discoveries will make this progress possible. 

Remuneration. There is a rather prevalent opinion that engineering is 
one of the best-paid professions. If you are intending to study engineer¬ 
ing because you think that it is the most profitable profession to enter, 
you had better abandon the idea right here. In common with most of 
the other professions, there are great prizes to be had at the top of the 
ladder. Several years ago the wages of electrical engineers who had just 
graduated were from $90 to $100 a month. Of course, their wages have 
risen since that time in proportion to the increase in the salaries of other 
professions. The fact that the wages for men of little experience are low 
is accounted for when you consider that many of the graduates are willing 
to work for a very low wage in order to secure the necessary experience. 


194 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


As a man grows older and secures some experience, his salary is increased 
in proportion to his ability. Many engineers, after they have had ten or 
fifteen years’ experience, enter business for themselves and become con¬ 
tractors or consulting engineers. When one reaches this stage, the re¬ 
muneration is very high. Prominent consulting engineers charge as high 
as $500 for a single day’s work. 

Preparation. In preparing for the profession of electrical engineering, 
a college course is absolutely essential. For admission to almost any 
engineering school the following high-school subjects are prerequisite: 
English (3), foreign language (3), history (1), mathematics (4), electives 
(4). In addition some colleges require one year of chemistry. If a four- 
year course is pursued in college, the student must resign himself to four 
years of good hard work. Many colleges do not consider four years a long 
enough time in which to master all the branches of the profession; so they 
have established five-and six-year courses. At any rate, a boy who is 
preparing for the engineering profession must not go to college with the 
idea of enjoying himself exclusively, for he will soon find out that engineer¬ 
ing schools were established for workers. 

Qualities of a successful electrical engineer. A boy can find out in high 
school whether he has one of the qualities which a successful engineer 
should possess. If he has more than ordinary difficulty in mastering his 
high-school physics or mathematics, he may as well abandon the idea of 
ever becoming a good engineer. The first quality which a successful 
engineer should have is a liking for physics and mathematics. Other 
qualities which he should possess are close observation, sound judgment, 
mechanical ingenuity, and ability to handle men. If a man has these 
qualities together with a good stock of common sense, he can be sure 
that, he will make a successful engineer. 

Advantages and disadvantages of the profession. That the remuneration 
is not high when the extensive preparation required is taken into consider¬ 
ation has been made clear. Another disadvantage is the fact that very 
often it is impossible for an electrical engineer to secure a steady position. 
He is employed to install certain electrical machinery; and when this 
piece of work is finished, his services are no longer required. Because 
of this fact many very competent engineers are never able to secure 
steady positions and spend their entire lives job-hunting. But in spite 
of these disadvantages, if a boy has a real liking for constructive work, 
if he is mentally alert, accurate, trustworthy, and industrious, he can 
be sure of at least moderate success in any branch of the engineering 
profession. 

Some of the advantages of the profession have been mentioned. Never¬ 
theless there is one important advantage which I think ought to be 
brought out—that is, the nature and agreeableness of the work itself. An 
electrical engineer, does not have to sit in an office all day poring over a 


REVIEW, ESSAY, CLASSBOOK 


195 


list of figures or doing some other equally monotonous work. He is right 
out where the actual work is being done; he can see his work grow under 
his own eyes and can acquire a real love for his work. 


Practice 4 

The class may plan and write a classbook on vocations, birds, sports, 
health, thrift, our city or community, our school, colleges, home, industries, 
how articles are manufactured, country life, better English, better speech, 
the airplane, safety first, newspapers, magazines, travel, labor and capital, 
textiles, favorite books, contemporary poets, novelists, short-story 
writers, dramatists, essayists, orators, statesmen, captains of industry, 
the greatest living Americans, experiences in school or out of school, our 
state, our country, or American problems. 

CLASSBOOK ON SPORTS 

SUGGESTED UNIFORM OUTLINE 

I. Brief explanation or description of the sport discussed 

II. History, popularity, and appeal of the sport 

III. Physical and mental qualifications needed to excel in the sport 

IV. Comparison with other sports—exercise, fresh air, alertness, con¬ 

centration, fun, strengthening vital muscles, danger of injury or 
overdoing 

V. Chief values 

1. Baseball. 2. Basketball. 3. Bicycling. 4. Billiards. 5. Bowling. 
6. Boxing. 7. Canoeing. 8. Coasting. 9. Cricket. 10. Croquet. 
11. Dancing. 12. Football. 13. Wrestling. 14. Golf. 15. Handball. 
16. Hiking. 17. Hockey. 18. Hurdling. 19. Jumping. 20. Moun¬ 
tainclimbing. 21. Pole vaulting. 22. Polo. 23. Rowing. 24. Running. 
25. Skating. 26. Skiing. 27. Snowshoeing. 28. Swimming. 29. Ten¬ 
nis. 30. Tobogganing. 31. Hunting. 32. Fishing. 33. Lacrosse. 
34. Soccer. 35. Volley ball. 36. Boat racing. 37. Yacht racing. 
38. Chess. 39. Checkers. 40. Aviation. 41. Fencing. 42. Captain 
ball. 

WHO^S WHO 

Most classes enjoy publishing a “Who^s Who.” The following 
chapter from such a volume of brief autobiographies suggests 
topics for a uniform outline. 


196 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


ALICE LOUISE WILSON 

Birth. Long Island City, New York, November 26, 1914. 

Residence. 6 Ascan Avenue, Forest Hills, New York. 

Description. My hair is that indefinite shade known in the vernacular 
as “mud-gutter blond.” It is straight, and, of course, bobbed. My eyes 
are “cat’s” eyes, their color being green. The feature behind which all 
others fade into insignificance, however, is my extremely prominent nose. 

Schools attended. Saint Joseph’s School, Roxbury, Massachusetts, 
6 years; Academy of Saint Joseph, Brentwood, Long Island, 1 year; 
Newtown High School, 3 years. 



Times Wide World 


A Potato Race 


Activities. Arista; XYZ Club, treasurer; Lantern staff; winning hockey 
team, captain; Biology Club. 

Favorite study. Of all the subjects I have studied in high school I 
consider English my favorite. 

Favorite amusement. My favorite, although far from frequent, amuse¬ 
ment is automobile riding. No matter if the car is only a Ford, no matter 
how rough the road, no matter what the weather, I can imagine nothing 
more exhilarating than feeling the breeze swish the hair back from my 
face as the car bumps or glides by swaying fields of corn or snow-blanketed 
trees and once-green pastures. 

Favorite author. My idea of my favorite author is very indefinite. I 
like Tarkington for comedies. Gene Stratton Porter for nature studies, 




REVIEW, ESSAY, CLASSBOOK 197 

Winston Churchill for historical novels, and Hilda Conkling for sweet, 
simple poetry. 

Something 1 do fairly well. The something I do fairly well is extremely 
hard to find. I think, however, I sew fairly well. This I do not attribute 
to any intelligence or skill of my own. It is purely luck. My mother, who 
follows strictly one pattern, is quite upset when I use any number ranging 
from two to six—the collar of one, the cuffs of another, the waist of 
another—filling in the missing parts with newspaper patterns created 
after some fastidious notions of my own. I am quite lucky in having them 
go together in any form or fashion at all. 

Most interesting experience. I consider my most interesting experience 
the sight of the city of Boston after a molasses flood. One day a large 
molasses tank, down by the river, burst. The sticky fluid, of course, 
flooded the streets, carrying automobiles, horses and wagons, men and 
women, before it. Some met a sweet and sticky death. A few days after 
the flood I visited the city. The houses near which the molasses wended 
its slow and sticky way were all “high-water” marked, the lower portion 
(almost three-fourths) a glossy brown, while above, divided by a distinct 
line, was the comparatively pale paint of the houses. It was indeed a 
strange and rare sight. 

Plans after leaving high school. After I leave Newtown I intend to go 
to New Rochelle College, where I shall major in English and minor in 
mathematics. If, after four years of college work, I have learned a little 
more English than I know at present, I have a vague idea of teaching it. 


CHAPTER XI 


PRECIS, REPORTS, AND EXAMINATIONS 

What a Precis Is 

A precis (pronounced pray-see) is a clear, concise, orderly sum¬ 
mary of the contents of a passage and is ordinarily about one- 
third or one-fourth as long as the original. The precis, also called 
a summary, an abstract, a condensation, an abridgment, a t6- 
sum4, and an epitome, is a passage boiled down so that only the 
essence, pith, or gist is left. 

Value of Precis Writing 

One purpose of education is to help students to discover what 
they should not learn. The boy or girl who tries to learn every¬ 
thing in the books he reads and studies wastes his time and masters 
nothing. The student who is in the habit of searching for main 
points, understanding them, learning them, and reviewing them 
is educating himself. 

Probably half of the failures in school are due directly or in¬ 
directly to silent reading deficiency. Teachers of history, mathe¬ 
matics, English, science, accounting, law, and other subjects say 
that many of the pupils who fail in their classes fail because they 
can’t read, can’t understand the textbook, can’t read the examina¬ 
tion paper. Hence practice in digging out the main points of a 
passage improves a pupil’s work in school. Training in silent 
reading is training in the art of studying. 

Moreover the ability to get at the gist, pith, or essence of a 
matter is important professional, business, and social equipment. 
Precis writing prepares for getting and explaining tersely the main 
points of legal papers, laws, rules and regulations, announcements 
and directions, business letters, speeches, conversations, inter¬ 
views, and technical, professional, and general books and articles. 
In conversation the ability to summarize briefly a book or a maga¬ 
zine article pertinent to the subject is valuable. 

198 


PRECIS, REPORTS, AND EXAMINATIONS 199 

How to Prepare a Precis 

The first and most important step in making a precis is reading 
the passage thoroughly. Thorough reading includes digging out 
the thought of every difficult sentence and discovering the rela¬ 
tionship of the principal and the subordinate ideas of each para¬ 
graph and of the whole passage. 

How to Read a Difficult Sentence 

1. Know the central idea of the entire poem, article, or chapter, 
and of the paragraph in which the sentence is imbedded. Each 
sentence is closely related in meaning to the rest of the para¬ 
graph. If a sentence may be interpreted in two or three ways, 
decide from the rest of the paragraph which interpretation is 
best. 

2. Knowing what the preceding and the following sentences 
are about will help you to fathom the deepest sentence or un¬ 
ravel the most tangled one. 

3. Look up in the dictionary words the meaning of which is 
not perfectly clear to you. 

4. Look up allusions which are new to you. 

5. In imagination see the pictures suggested by descriptive 
words and figures of speech. 

6. Pick out the key words, think what their relation in thought 
is, and in this way find the central idea of the sentence. Avoid 
giving great weight to an unimportant word. Then read the 
sentence again, being careful to include all details. 

7. Separate a long or difficult sentence into the principal 
statement, important subordinate ideas, and modifiers of sub¬ 
ordinate elements. If the sentence is complicated or elliptical, 
bjr taking it apart find every principal clause, its subject, verb, 
complement, and modifying phrases or clauses. It helps one 
sometimes to arrange a sentence, especially of poetry, in the 
natural order: subject and subject modifiers; verb and verb 
modifiers; object and object modifiers. 

8. If the discussion of the subject is too technical or abstract 


200 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


for you, gather outside information about the subject, the speaker, 
or the writer, his purpose in writing the article, or the circum¬ 
stances under which he delivered the speech. 

Practice 1 

Paraphrasing is giving the meaning in other words, sometimes 
with greater fullness of detail or illustration. Dig the meaning 
out of the following sentences; then paraphrase them: 

1. The Child is father of the Man. 

2. Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again. 

3. The evil that men do lives after them. 

4. When you “come a cropper’' and land on the bridal path, be 
nonchalant. 

5. He indulged his flair for wise-cracks. 

6. One is never so near to another as when he is forced to be separated. 

7. When faith is lost, when honor dies, the man is dead. 

8. He who would search for pearls must dive below. 

9. But knowledge to their eyes her ample page. 

Rich with the spoils of time, did ne’er unroll.— Gray 

10. The applause of listening senates to command, 

The threats of pain and ruin to despise. 

To scatter plenty o’er a smiling land, 

And read their history in a nation’s eyes, 

Their lot forbade; nor circumscribed alone 

Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined.— Gray 

11. We look before and after, 

And pine for what is not: 

Our sincerest laughter 
With some pain is fraught; 

Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.— Shelley 

12. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet 
Are of imagination all compact: 

One sees more devils than vast hell can hold. 

That is, the madman: the lover, all as frantic, 

Sees Helen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt: 

The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling. 

Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; 

And as imagination bodies forth 
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen 
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing 
A local habitation and a name.— Shakespeare 


PREICIS, REPORTS, AND EXAMINATIONS 201 

13. ^ By the clock ^tis day, 

And yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp: 

Is’t night’s predominance, or the day’s shame. 

That darkness does the face of earth entomb. 

When living men should kiss it?— Shakespeare 

14. Vice is a monster of so frightful mien 
As to be hated needs but to be seen; 

Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face. 

We first endure, then pity, then embrace.— Pope 

15. The period for a new election of a citizen, to administer the exec¬ 
utive government of the United States, being not far distant, and the 
time actually arrived when your thoughts must be employed in designat¬ 
ing the person who is to be clothed with that important trust, it appears 
to me proper, especially as it may conduce to a more distinct expression 
of the public voice, that I should now apprise you of the resolution I 
have formed to decline being considered among the number of those out 
of whom a choice is to be made.— ^Washington 

How to Read a Paragraph Thoroughly 

1. Shut out all foreign thoughts. 

2. Know the central idea of the entire selection. 

3. First, glance through the paragraph to get a bird’s-eye view 
of it. 

4. Find or construct a sentence which expresses the central 
idea of the paragraph. 

5. As you read the other sentences thoroughly, think how the 
ideas are related to the topic of the paragraph and to each other, 
which are principal, and which subordinate. 

6. If a paragraph is long and complicated, outline it in your 
mind or on paper. 


Writing the Precis 

After thoroughly reading the passage write out clearly and 
tersely in your own words—don’t use sentences of the original— 
the main points of the paragraph. Use about one-third or one- 
fourth as many words as there are in the original. Omit quota¬ 
tions, illustrations, and figures of speech. Nevertheless make 
the precis a smooth, lucid, pointed composition, not a vague 
outline. 


202 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Next, read again the selection and criticize and revise your 
work. Ask yourself these questions: 

1. Have I misunderstood any idea? 

2. Have I included all important ideas? 

3. Have I excluded all unimportant details and crossed out 
all unnecessary words? 

4. Is all the language my own? 

5. Are my words, sentences, and paragraphs correct? 

Finally, copy neatly and legibly the revised precis. 

Example: 

ORIGINAL {320 words) 

Within the car there was the usual interior life of the railroad, offering 
little to the observation of other passengers, but fuU of novelty for this 
pair of strangely enfranchised prisoners. It was novelty enough, indeed, 
that there were fifty human beings in close relation with them, under one 
long and narrow roof, and drawn onward by the same mighty influence 
that had taken their two selves into its grasp. It seemed marvellous how 
all these people could remain so quietly in their seats, while so much 
noisy strength was at work in their behalf. Some, with tickets in their 
hats (long travellers these, before whom lay a hundred miles of railroad), 
had plunged into the English scenery and adventures of pamphlet novels, 
and were keeping company with dukes and earls. Others, whose briefer 
span forbade their devoting themselves to studies so abstruse, beguiled 
the little tedium of the way with penny-papers. A party of girls, and one 
young man, on opposite sides of the car, found huge amusement in a game 
of ball. They tossed it to and fro, with peals of laughter that might be 
measured by mile-lengths; for, faster than the nimble ball could fly, the 
merry players fled unconsciously along, leaving the trail of their mirth 
afar behind, and ending their game under another sky than had witnessed 
its commencement. Boys, with apples, cakes, candy, and rolls of variously 
tinctured lozenges,—merchandise that reminded Hepzibah of her de¬ 
serted shop,—appeared at each momentary stopping-place, doing up 
their business in a hurry, or breaking it short off, lest the market should 
ravish them away with it. New people continually entered. Old ac¬ 
quaintances—for such they soon grew to be, in this rapid current of 
affairs—continually departed. Here and there, amid the rumble and the 
tumult sat one asleep. Sleep; sport; business; graver or lighter study; 
and the common and inevitable movement onward! It was life!— 
Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables - 


PRfiCIS, REPORTS, AND EXAMINATIONS 203 

PUPIL PRECIS {105 words) 

Within the car the pair of emancipated prisoners saw the usual train 
scene. To them, however, it was something strange and wonderful. 
They were held in close relationship with fifty other people by a common 
means of locomotion. Some quietly read English novels; others, not 
traveling far, glanced over newspapers. A group of young girls and one 
young man derived huge enjoyment from a game of ball. At each station 
small boys hurried aboard, sold their tidbits, and dashed off again before 
the train started. New passengers continually appeared, while others 
departed. All phases of life were represented here, from quiet sleep to 
joyous hilarity. 

Practice 2 

Make a precis of each of the selections on pages 167, 168, 
172-174 and 182-184 and of the following selections.^ With 
practice you should be able to write a smooth and accurate 
precis of a long paragraph in fifteen minutes. 

1 

And, therefore, first of all, I tell you, earnestly and authoritatively, 
(I know I am right in this) you must get into the habit of looking intensely 
at words, and assuring yourself of their meaning, syllable by syllable— 
nay, letter by letter. For though it is only by reason of the opposition of 
letters in the function of signs, to sounds in the function of signs, that the 
study of books is called “literature,’^ and that a man versed in it is called, 
by the consent of nations, a man of letters instead of a man of books, or 
of words, you may yet connect with that accidental nomenclature this 
real fact,—that you might read all the books in the British Museum (if 
you could live long enough), and remain an utterly “illiterate,” unedu¬ 
cated person; but that if you read ten pages of a good book, letter by 
letter—that is to say, with real accuracy,—^you are for evermore in some 
measure an educated person.— Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies 

2 

In the old days before Rome entered on a career of foreign conquest, 
her citizens were famous among men for their love of country, their simple 
lives, their conservative, old-fashioned ways. They worked hard on 
their little farms, fought bravely in the legions, and kept up with careful 
piety all the ceremonies of their religion. The ideal Roman was a Cin- 
cinnatus, who left his fields to take the dictatorship, or a Curius Dentatus, 

1 Most of the selections have been used on College Entrance Examination Board 
or New York State Regents examinations. 


204 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


the conqueror of the Samnites and of Pyrrhus. Curius had celebrated 
three triumphs, but still lived modestly in a cottage on a four-acre plot 
which he tilled with his own hands. To him came envoys from the 
Samnites offering rich bribes. “Go tell the Samnites,” he answered, 
“that Curius counts it glory, not to possess wealth, but to rule those 
who do.” Such men as these, despite their many faults, had made the 
little city-state by the Tiber great among the nations.— ^Webster’s 
Ancient History ^ 

3 

Upon the occurrence of an accident, involving bodily injuries or death, 
or damage to property of others, the Assured shall give immediate written 
notice thereof with the fullest information obtainable at the time, to the 
New York Office of the Company. The Assured shall give like notice 
with full particulars of any claims made on account of such accident. If 
suit is brought to enforce such claims, the Assured shall promptly forward 
to the New York Office of the Company every summons or other process 
that may be served upon the Assured. Notice given by or on behalf of 
the Assured to any authorized agent of the Company, with particulars 
sufficient to identify the Assured, shall be deemed to be notice to the 
Company. Failure to give notice required to be given by this Policy 
within the time specified therein shall not invalidate any claim made by 
the Assured if it shall be shown that it was not reasonably possible to 
give such notice within the prescribed time and that notice was given as 
soon as was reasonably possible.^ 

4 

Nothing has been more productive of injury to young literary students 
than those stories—or legends—about great writers having written 
great books in a very short time. They suggest what must be in a million 
cases impossible, as a common possibility. You hear of Johnson having 
written Rasselas in a few weeks, or of Beckford having done a similar 
thing, of various other notables never correcting their manuscript— 
and the youth who has much self-confidence imagines that he can do 
the same thing and produce literature. I do not believe those stories. 
I do not say exactly that they are not true; I only say that I do not 
believe them, and that the books, as we have them now, certainly repre¬ 
sent much more than the work of a few weeks or even months. It is much 
more valuable to remember that Gray passed fourteen years in correcting 
and improving a single poem, and that no great poem or book, as we 
now have the text, represents the first form of the text. (Take, for 

1 Reprinted by permission of the publisher, D. C. Heath and Company. 

2 Reprinted by permission of the Interboro Mutual Indemnity Insurance 
Company. 


205 


PRECIS, REPORTS, AND EXAMINATIONS 

example, the poets we have been reading. It is commonly said that 
Rossetti’s “Blessed Damosel” was written in his nineteenth year. This 
is true; but we have the text of the poem as it was written in his nine¬ 
teenth year, and it is unlike the poem as we now have it; for it was 
changed and corrected and recorrected scores of times to bring it to its 
present state of perfection.) Almost everything composed by Tennyson 
was changed, and changed, and changed again, to such an extent that 
in almost every edition the text differed. Above all things, do not imagine 
that any good work can be done without immense pains.— Lafcadio 
Hearn, Talks to Writers^ 

5 

That man, I think, has had a liberal education, who has been so 
trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does 
with ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable 
of; whose intellect is a clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts of 
equal strength, and in smooth working order; ready, like a steam engine, 
to be turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as 
forge the anchors of the mind; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of 
the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws of her opera¬ 
tions; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose 
passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant 
of a tender conscience; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of 
Nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself. 

Such a one, and no other, I conceive, has had a liberal education; for 
he is, as completely as a man can be, in harmony with Nature. He 
will make the best of her, and she of him. They will get on together 
rarely: she as his ever beneficent mother; he as her mouthpiece, her 
conscious self, her minister and interpreter.— Thomas Huxley 

6 

It is well said, in every sense, that a man’s religion is the chief fact 
with regard to him. By religion I do not mean here the church-creed 
which he professes, the articles of faith which he will sign, and, in words 
or otherwise, assert; not this wholly, in many cases not this at all. We 
see men of all kinds of professed creeds attain to almost all degrees 
of worth or worthlessness under each or any of them. This is not what 
I call religion, this profession and assertion; which is often only a pro¬ 
fession and assertion from the outworks of the man, from the mere argu¬ 
mentative region of him, if even so deep as that. But the thing a man 
does practically believe (and this is often enough without asserting it 
even to himself, much less to others); the thing a man does practically 

1 Reprinted by permission of Dodd, Mead and Company. 


206 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


lay to heart, and know for certain, concerning his vital relations to this 
mysterious Universe, and his duty and destiny there, that is in all cases 
the primary thing for him, and creatively determines all the rest. That 
is his religion; or, it may be, his mere scepticism and no-religion; the 
manner it is in which he feels himself to be spiritually related to the 
Unseen World or No-World; and I say, if you tell me what that is, you 
tell me to a very great extent what the man is, what the kind of things 
he will do is.— Thomas Carlyle, Heroes and Hero Worship 

7 

I cannot resist the obvious temptation to compare Huxley as a social 
thinker with Shaw and Wells. He is not, like Wells, essentially a good 
novelist lamentably turned pamphleteer; he is, rather, a born essayist 
and thinker who by some accident stumbled early in his career into the 
novel form. His style lacks the energy and pyrotechnic brilliance of 
Shaw’s, and the political effectiveness of much of the pamphleteering of 
Wells. But unlike either Wells or Shaw, he does not consider himself a 
prophet; he is free from their intolerance of alien modes of thinking, 
their messianic delusions, their absurd cocksureness; he has no slick 
nostrums or panaceas on tap. He has more essential humility and is 
disposed to give a more patient ear to what others have thought before 
him; he has more respect for the changeless facts of human nature and 
for facts in general. In brief, he is endowed with that fine balance that 
we call common sense. It would be impossible to imagine him, hke 
Wells, rushing breathlessly on the stage with a new patent medicine every 
few months, or, like Shaw, ridiculing scientific experiment, opposing 
every form of vivisection on maudlinly sentimental grounds, shouting 
for the inheritance of acquired characters in the face of all the evidence, 
or advocating anything so nonsensical as equality of income. Some¬ 
where in this book Huxley defines cranks as those who turn their opinions 
into religions. In that sense Shaw and Wells are cranks, however bril¬ 
liant; and Aldous Huxley never is.— Henry Hazlitt, New YorkSun^ 

8 

The World is too much with us; late and soon. 

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; 

Little we see in Nature that is ours; 

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon! 

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon. 

The winds that will be howling at all hours 
And are up-gather’d now like sleeping flowers. 


1 Reprinted by permission. 


PRECIS, REPORTS, AND EXAMINATIONS 207 

For this, for everything, we are out of tune; 

It moves us not. — Great God! I’d rather be 
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn, — 

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea. 

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn; 

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; 

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn. 

—William Wordsworth 


9 

When I consider how my light is spent 
Ere half my days in this dark world and wide. 

And that one talent which is death to hide 
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent 
To serve therewith my Maker, and present 
My true account, lest He returning chide; 

‘‘Doth God exact day-labor, light denied?” 

I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent 
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need 
Either man’s work or His own gifts. Who best 
Bear His mild yoke, they serve Him best. His state 
Is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed. 

And post o’er land and ocean without rest; 

They also serve who only stand and wait.”— 

—John Milton, “On His Blindness” 

10 

I met a traveler from an antique land, 

Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone 
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand. 

Half sunk, a shatter’d visage hes, whose frown 
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command 
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read 
Which yet survive, stamp’d on these lifeless things, 

The hand that mock’d them and the heart that fed. 

And on the pedestal these words appear: 

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: 

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” 

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay 
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare. 

The lone and level sands stretch far away. 

—Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ozymandias of Egypt” 


208 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 
11 


Others abide our question. Thou art free. 

We ask and ask—Thou smilest and art still, 

Out-topping knowledge. For the loftiest hill, 

Who to the stars uncrowns his majesty, 

Planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea. 

Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place, 

Spares but the cloudy border of his base 
To the foird searching of mortality; 

And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know, 

Self-schoobd, self-scann’d, self-honour’d, self-secure. 

Didst tread on earth unguess’d at. Better so! 

All pains the immortal spirit must endure, 

All weakness which impairs, all griefs which bow. 

Find their sole voice in that victorious brow. 

—Matthew Arnold, ^‘Shakespeare’' 

Practice 3 

Make precis of as many of the following as your teacher assigns: 
Wordsworth’s “The Daffodils” and “The Reaper,” Keats’s “Ode to Au¬ 
tumn” and “Ode to a Grecian Urn,” Shelley’s “To a Skylark” and “Ode 
to the West Wind,” Burns’s “To a Mouse,” paragraphs of Palmer’s 
“Self-Cultivation in English,” Carlyle’s “Essay on Burns,” and Ma¬ 
caulay’s “Life of Johnson.” 

Precis of Selection Read Aloud 

Practice 4 

Write a precis of a paragraph or a longer selection read aloud to you. 
Probably for the first exercise of this sort your teacher will read the se¬ 
lection twice. Later you will be expected to get the gist or main points 
of the selection from a single reading. During the reading you may take 
notes if you wish to. 


Oral Precis 
Practice 5 

Read a selection chosen by your teacher or listen to the reading aloud 
of a selection. Then summarize it orally. Use periods after your sen¬ 
tences; do not make your summary one long sentence joined by and-urs. 


209 


PRECIS, REPORTS, AND EXAMINATIONS 
Secretary’s Report 

A secretary’s report, which is a precis of a meeting, is a rec¬ 
ord of the business transacted, the motions passed, the com¬ 
mittees appointed, and other important happenings. Like other 
precis, the secretary’s report should be terse, clear, and pointed. 

In some English classes the pupils in turn act as secretary, 
write the minutes in the secretary’s book, and read them in class 
or write them on the blackboard. Miss Herzog, for example, 
acts as secretary on Monday, takes notes, writes up the min¬ 
utes of the meeting, reads the minutes on Tuesday, listens to 
the criticism of the pupils and the teacher, makes corrections, 
and then passes the secretary’s book to Mr. West, who acts 
as secretary of Tuesday’s meeting. 

The secretary’s report of a meeting of an English class should, 
as a rule, include the date, the names of absentees, the assign¬ 
ment for the next recitation, important announcements or business, 
a resume of the work done, and a summary of what the class 
learned during the period. When you write a report of a meet¬ 
ing of your class, avoid stereotyped expressions. Omit matters 
of daily class routine which all the pupils understand; for ex¬ 
ample, ‘The class met in Room 208”; “The class came to order 
when the bell rang”; “The teacher then took the attendance”; 
“When the passing bell rang, the class was dismissed.” Keep 
in mind three purposes of the secretary’s report: (1) to help 
the pupils at the beginning of a period to review the work of the 
preceding period; (2) to let the absent pupil know exactly what 
he missed and to guide him in the making up of his work; (3) to 
give the secretary valuable practice in precis writing and in 
reading aloud. Of course, you know that practice of any sort— 
precis writing, tennis, chess, or bridge whist, for example—is of 
real value only when you take pains and do your best. 

Example: 

May 2, 1929 

The assignment for Friday, May 3, which consisted of preparing a 
grammar poster and studying pages 294-299 in the textbook, started the 


210 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


day^s work of the English 63 class. Mr. Hyde suggested that the posters 
call attention to common errors, such as “it is him,’' “for him and I.” 

Next Miss Olson read her report of May 1, which was accurate and 
included only the important subject matter of the recitation but was criti¬ 
cized for a lack of variety of sentence structure and for the repetition of 
and. 

Members of the class were asked whose contributions to the class paper 
they would like to hear. Miss Thurston was selected. She read her poem 
entitled “Winter Twilight.” It contained all the elements of good poetry 
—beautiful thought, imagination, emotion, diction, and sound. An 
article called “The Greatest Sin” was then read by Mr. Harkness. The 
class thought it illogical and too general. The “Household and Beauty 
Hints” read by Miss Shepherd were humorous and original. Miss 
O’Keefe’s essay about the old building was well written. Miss Hall was 
criticized for reading to her paper, not to the class, and for mispronounc¬ 
ing alias and reality. Her essay on dreams was original and entertaining 
but needed more illustrations. An amusing poem on “Job Hunting,” 
which was considered good material for the class paper because it had good 
rhythm, a point, and several good laughs, was read by Miss Solomon. 

During the period the pupils learned from the examples and discussion 
some ways to make a contribution to a class paper both worth while and 
entertaining. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Esther Rones 


Practice 6 

Write, when your turn comes, a secretary’s report of an English 
recitation. 


Other Reports 

Clearness and accuracy are fundamental qualities of any re¬ 
port, whether oral or written. The subject matter varies widely. 
Many reports answer the questions, “Who?” “When?” “Where?” 
“What?’^ “How?” and “Why?” or some of them. For example, 
the chairman of a committee appointed to recommend plans 
for a class entertainment might in a report in favor of a play 
tell what kinds of entertainment were considered and why the 
committee favors the giving of a play, recommend a particular 
play and discuss it, and suggest a time and a place for the enter¬ 
tainment and a way to prepare the play. 


PRECIS, REPORTS, AND EXAMINATIONS 211 

Practice 7 

1 . As chairman of a committee to select a magazine for study by the 
class during the term, write your report. Discuss the magazine rec¬ 
ommended and other magazines considered. 

2. As chairman of a committee to recommend additions to the school 
supplementary reading list, write your report. Give terse but good reasons 
for each recommendation. 

3. As chairman of a committee on minimum standards in penmanship, 
speech, or written composition for your class during the term, write your 
report. Be specific. If, for example, you choose penmanship, illustrate 
both satisfactory and unsatisfactory penmanship. 

4. Because pupils are dropping out of high school, the principal has 
appointed a committee to investigate the advantages of completing the 
high-school course. As chairman of the committee secure facts and 
opinions and write your report. 

5. As critic of your class for a day report orally at the end of the recita¬ 
tion or the beginning of the next recitation. Point out specifically defects 
and excellences in subject matter, English, and speech. 

6. Visit a factory or a business concern and write an illuminating report. 

7. Report orally on a magazine article, a speech, a game, the work of a 
club, the work done in another class, a radio lecture or program, or the 
most important news of the week. 

8. Write for your insurance company a report of a real or imaginary 
automobile accident. Give in detail a complete description of everything 
that happened. Make clear just how the accident happened, what caused 
it, and what damage was done. Include time and place of accident, 
conditions, speed of cars, personal injury, property damage, make of 
other car, name and address of driver, names and addresses of witnesses, 
badge number of policeman summoned, and the like. 

Examinations 

Many English examinations include precis writing, and ex¬ 
aminations in all subjects commonly call for retelling by con¬ 
densing. Because promotion and a high rating in school and 
out of school frequently depend on answering questions, the 
ability to hit the nail on the head in an examination is valuable 
to every one. 

When one of your friends has sailed through his examinations 
with a ninety in every subject, havenT you said, “Well, he has 
the knack of taking examinations,^^ in a way that suggested 


212 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


that you knew you didn’t have the knack and there wasn’t 
anything to be done about the matter? What is the knack of 
passing examinations? It is skill acquired in much the same way 
as the ability to pitch a baseball, hit a golf ball, or play tennis. 
To play a good tennis game one must prepare by months or 
years of practice and also use his head in the game. To pass 
an examination one must prepare and also think and work care¬ 
fully in the examination. The greatest care in the examination 
will not make amends for a lack of preparation. 

Preparing for an examination means studying every day, be¬ 
ginning work promptly, concentrating, mastering the units of 
work covered, reviewing frequently, taking a lively interest in 
your subjects, talking over with your family and friends what 
you are studying, keeping yourseK in good physical condition, 
working systematically at the job of breaking bad speech and 
writing habits, and establishing good study habits. But '^How 
to Study” is a subject for a book, not a topic for a paragraph. 
If you want to acquire the knack of preparing for examinations, 
read Guy M. Whipple’s little book called How to Study Effectively, 

How to Take an Examination 

The examination marks of people equally well prepared and 
equally intelligent sometimes differ by thirty per cent or 
more. Care and thought in the examination account for the 
difference. Perhaps these examination suggestions will help you 
to write better answers. 

1. Be in good physical condition. Sleep at least eight hours 
the night before the examination. 

2. In the examination first read the entire question paper, 
jotting down a few part answers as you read. 

3. Make a time schedule. Assign more time to a twenty-five 
per cent question than to a ten per cent one. Follow your schedule 
approximately. If you have only twenty minutes for a composi¬ 
tion, you are expected to write the best composition you can 
in twenty minutes, not in an hour. Save at least one-tenth of 
your examination time for revision at the end of the period. 


PREICIS, REPORTS, AND EXAMINATIONS 


213 


4. Answer every question or part of a question required. 

5. Omit a line between answers. 

6. If you have a choice of questions, select the topic you know 
best. You understand better what you have done than what 
you have read about. 

7. Plan your work on practice paper. Arrange your points 
logically. If you have time enough, write every answer first on 
practice paper. Watch your time schedule. 

8. Include the gist of the question in the first sentence of 
your answer. This will keep you from wandering from the point 
and will remind the examiner that you are giving just what is 
called for. 

9. Answer in paragraph form unless the question clearly indi¬ 
cates that the answer is to be a list, an outline, or a table. If 
a question having three parts calls for a short answer, build one 
paragraph; if for a longer answer, use a paragraph for each point. 

10. Before you begin to answer a question, think exactly what 
it means and what it calls for. Then proceed straight to the point. 

11. Answer the question completely, be sure that your an¬ 
swer touches every point in the question, but donT waste your 
time giving information not called for or trying to conceal your 
ignorance in a multiplicity of words. Your filling up space with¬ 
out saying anything may amuse your teacher but will not de¬ 
ceive him. Write fully but stick to the point. In a question 
calling for discussion don’t just state the fact; develop and il¬ 
lustrate it. Make each answer a carefully planned, unified, co¬ 
herent, forceful composition. Imagine that you are writing 
voluntarily for some one you know, and make everything you 
write sound like something real, not just like the answer to a 
question. 

12. Vary the sentence structure. Use some complex sentences, 
participles, appositives, and sentences with something beside 
adjectives before the subject. 

13. Don’t abbreviate. Write and, the United States, President, 
and Professor. 

14. Write neatly and plainly, for examiners are only human 


214 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


and are irritated by slovenly or undecipherable manuscript. An 
examination that is easy to read seems clearer than an almost 
illegible one and receives a higher mark. 

15. In your revision reread the questions thoroughly and see 
whether you have answered them pointedly and completely. 
Watch for mistakes in spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitaliza¬ 
tion, word choice, and sentence structure. Watch especially for 
two serious errors: putting a period after a half-sentence and 
running separate sentences together without periods or capitals 
(the comma blunder). When you make a change, either erase 
neatly or strike out with a single straight line. Use the caret 
for insertions. If you cross out occasionally a commonplace, 
vague, or inaccurate word and substitute a specific, picture¬ 
making, or accurate word, the examiner will know that you have 
revised thoughtfully. 

16. Keep cool. Remember that you are doing exactly the 
same kind of work that you have been doing in class day after day. 

Four common causes of failure in examinations are the omis¬ 
sion of an answer through oversight or lack of time, the omission 
of part of an answer, poor organization and arrangement of 
answers, and misinterpreting questions. The first two may be 
avoided by following a time schedule and checking the parts of 
questions as you answer them. Avoiding the last two requires 
practice and thought. 

Analyzing Questions 

Practice 8 

Show that pupils A and C analyzed the questions and that 
pupils B and D just glanced at the questions and began to write: 

Question 1 

Develop the following topic sentence into a paragraph of about one 
hundred fifty words: Portia is the embodiment of mental alertness, 
faithfulness, and humor. 

A 

Portia is the embodiment of mental alertness, faithfulness, and humor. 
As soon as Bassanio teUs her that Antonio is in trouble and that it is his 


215 


PRfiCIS, REPORTS, AND EXAMINATIONS 

fault, she, a faithful wife, senses that he wishes her help and offers him 
money to free Antonio. It is her quick wit that formulates the plan of 
going to Rome as a Doctor of Law. With her maidservant Nerissa as 
clerk, she completely confuses the men at court. In the courtroom she 
proves her keenness beyond doubt. Leading the Jew on to think he is 
winning the case, and agreeing that he must surely have his pound of 
flesh, she suddenly looses a thunderbolt in their midst by saying that he 
may have his flesh, but he must not take one ounce more or less nor one 
drop of blood. She also manages to get from Bassanio the ring which he 
promised never to take from his finger. Back at home some time later, 
she shows her sense of humor by leading him on bit by bit, until he con¬ 
fesses that he gave the ring to a learned Doctor. She replies that she 
knows well that no beard will ever mar the face of the one who now holds 
the ring. Finally after much raillery she returns the ring to him. I think 
Portia is one of Shakespeare’s best and most interesting characters. 

B 

Portia is the embodiment of mental alertness, faithfulness, and humor. 
She was always on the go. When she was first heard of in the play, she 
was very humorous about all the suitors who came to pick the right casket 
which her father left when he died. It was in his will that the man who 
picked the casket with her picture in it would be the one to get her hand 
in marriage. Many tried their luck, but, to Portia’s relief, none succeeded. 
She was a very beautiful girl. Bassanio tried his luck for Portia, who really 
loved him, and he succeeded. Portia and Bassanio were married. Bas¬ 
sanio borrowed money from his friend Antonio, who in turn borrowed 
money from Shylock, the Jew. However, Antonio was Shylock’s rival 
merchant, and the agreement was that if Antonio’s ships were not in 
within three months he would take a pound of Antonio’s flesh. When 
three months were up, Antonio and Bassanio went to the Duke. Shylock 
and a few others went also. Portia, as soon as her husband left, also went 
disguised as a lawyer. Shylock could not be made to take anything but 
the flesh. Later the lawyer (Portia) came in and asked Shylock if he 
would not consider taking money. But Shylock would not listen. Portia 
said that the law said he must take the pound of flesh without shedding 
a drop of blood. 


Question 2 

Explain in about one hundred words what errors or defects in your 
speech and writing have been pointed out this term. Be specific. 

(In a question of this sort you have to decide whether writing means 
penmanship or written work. Which do you think it means? Why?) 


216 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 
C 

During this term I have had two defects in my speech pointed out in 
the English class. The first was that I spoke too fast, as a result of which 
many of my thoughts and ideas did not get over to the class. The 
other criticism was that I did not open my mouth wide enough and thus 
swallowed many of my words. This, however, happened only when I was 
giving an answer to some question and not when I was speaking before 
the class on some subject. 

In my writing my most important defects were my handwriting, 
punctuation, and spelling. Through these defects I lost many credits 
that otherwise I would have received. At least I have learned to place 
a semicolon between the clauses of a compound sentence when no con¬ 
junction joins them and to spell benefit, disappoint, embarrass, and 
procedure. 

D 

This term many errors have been pointed out to us in both our writing 
and our speech. 

In regard to our writing, we have been told that sentences beginning 
always with the subject become monotonous and sound childish. Like¬ 
wise the words and and so, if used too often, make our compositions 
sound babyish. We have also studied force, unity, clearness, and parallel 
structure, and thus have learned to build more effective sentences. 

In speech many of our defects have also been pointed out. All collo¬ 
quial, slang, and ungrammatical expressions which we employed have 
been pointed out to us and corrected. 

Peactice 9 

Analyze the following questions. Make clear just what each 
question calls for. How many paragraphs would you use in the 
answer? What topic would you discuss in each paragraph? 

Example: 

QUESTION 

The English department of your high school is revising the supple¬ 
mentary reading list (or preparing one for the school) and has asked 
you to cooperate by writing book-notes. Select two books that you 
have read to fulfil the high-school supplementary reading requirement, 
give titles and authors, and in a book-note of from 50 to 100 words for 
each explain the author’s purpose in writing the book, summarize the 
book very briefly, and give two or more reasons for considering it worth 
reading (or not worth reading). (15) Write a similar book-note on a 
drama studied in high school. (10) 


PRfiCIS, REPORTS, AND EXAMINATIONS 


217 


ANALYSIS 

The question calls for three book-notes, one based on a drama studied 
in high school and two on supplementary reading. Each book-note 
should be from 50 to 100 words long and should include (1) title and 
author of the book, (2) explanation of the author’s aim or objective— 
only one asked for—in writing the book, (3) a very brief precis, and (4) 
at least two reasons for recommending (or not recommending) the book. 

The question calls for a paragraph for each of the three books. 

1. Compare two novels that you have read in preparation for this 
examination. Use five or more of the following points: characters, 
plot, setting, humor and pathos, climaxes, style, beginning, ending, 
author’s theme or purpose, foreshadowing, suspense, probability, move¬ 
ment of story, characteristics of the author revealed in the novel. To 
illustrate or prove your points refer definitely to the novels. (25) 

^ 2. Shakespeare in most of his plays gives us characters that com¬ 
bine good and bad qualities. Point out in two of his characters qualities 
of both sorts. Make clear how these qualities are exhibited in speeches 
and acts of each character selected and show how these qualities are 
combined in the person’s nature. (40) 

3. Your class is to present an act of a play studied in high school. 
Write out directions for one of the actors. In about one hundred twenty- 
five words explain to him how he should look (dress and make-up), enter, 
act, and speak his lines. Illustrate the speaking of the lines by specific 
references to the scenes. (25) 

4. If you were an artist and were asked to illustrate one of the novels 
you have studied in high school, what novel would you select? Describe 
briefly but vividly two of the pictures you would draw or paint. (8) 

5. Stirred by the spiritual and moral appeal of a great play, people 
sometimes say, “It is as good as a sermon.” 

Prove by specific references to a play studied in high-school English 
that the work deserves such comment. Enrich your discussion by 
quoting from the play, comparing it with another play, or giving the 
opinions of critics. (25) 

6. “The essay is to prose what the lyric is to poetry, complete, genuine 
and beautiful self-expression, or better still, self-revelation.” Select 
an essay from the required or supplementary reading during your high- 
school course and show specifically and in some detail how the essay 
reveals the mind and character of its author. (20) 

7. Discuss at least two essays that you have studied in class in your 
English course, showing how the writer’s leading ideas are made vivid 
by one or more of the following: sincerity, sympathy, humor, close 
observation, imagination. In your discussion make specific reference 
to definite passages. (20) 


218 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


8. Select a poet you studied this term and prove that his poems have 
the qualities which make good poetry. Quote passages to illustrate or 
prove your points. (25) 

9. Selecting a play read in class this term, show that it exhibits at 
least two of the following merits; make your answer specific, discussing 
merits and proving that they are present in the work selected: (1) vivid 
and colorful presentation of pictures; (2) high ideals and inspiring thought; 
(3) portrayal of real people; (4) study of human mind and motives. (25) 

Practice 10 

On the supposition that each question is assigned twenty-five credits, 
how much is each of the following answers worth? With the sixteen 
examination suggestions in mind discuss each answer. Refer specifically 
to the answers to support your statements. 

QUESTION 1 

Account for the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte under these three 
topics: (a) the character of the man himself; (6) the conditions 
in France; (c) the conditions in Europe in general. Show two 
permanent benefits conferred upon France. 

ANSWER la 

The rise of Napoleon Bonaparte was due to the character of the 
man, conditions in France, and conditions in Europe. Napoleon Bona¬ 
parte was a brilliant general; he was determined, able, and had a love 
for power. He was educated in a French military school and at a very 
early age decided to make himself great. Napoleon was unscrupulous 
and keen. He stopped at nothing to attain his end. 

The conditions in France helped a great deal in the rise of Bonaparte. 
France’s government was very weak; she was at war with foreign countries 
and needed money. Napoleon made friends with the middle class. 
He obtained control of the French army in Italy and made a name for 
himself. After a while he became first consul and finally emperor. 

The condition of Europe, too, helped in Napoleon’s rise to power. 
After Napoleon had extended his sway over most of Europe except 
Turkey, Russia, and Great Britain, many of the European countries 
revolted against his rule. Napoleon fought his battles quickly and 
with good results. France’s army was fighting for her own country; 
the soldiers were inspired by nationalism. They were fighting for a 
cause—^to uphold the ideas of the French Revolution. This is one of 
the secrets of the success of Napoleon’s army. 


PRfiCIS, REPORTS, AND EXAMINATIONS 219 

Two permanent results of Napoleon in France are the Code Napoleon 
and the Bank of France. 

ANSWER 16 

Napoleon was a man of firm will and character. He was ambitious and 
clever. He wanted power and would stop at nothing to get it. He was 
militarily educated and a very able and clever general. He also had the 
opportunity to gain power because of the weakness of the Directory then 
at the head of the nation. It was so weak that the people were complain¬ 
ing because of poverty and poor government. All of Europe in fact was 
ripe for his coup d’etat. The people of Europe were getting interested in 
Rev. ideas and Monarchs had enough trouble quieting their own people 
without butting in elsewhere. However Napoleon’s reign was not one of 
military only. He made the Code Napoleon which is copied in the modern 
French law and even in Louisiana. He also established the Bank of 
France and the Legion of Honor. However there are certain blemishes 
on his honor. He divorced Josephine who was instrumental in his gain 
of power. He did another thing which is inexcusable that is the plunder¬ 
ing of the Italian Art gallery. Another fault which by the way was one 
of the causes of his downfall was his disregard of nationalism. His 
power depended on force and as soon as he lost the force of arms, his 
power was lost. 

QUESTION 2 

Discuss the truth expressed in the following paragraph, illus¬ 
trating by examples from at least four works chosen from your 
reading in high-school English: 

Literature may never with safety cut loose from the old, because the 
old is always new. The tide of generations flows on unceasingly, and for 
each the old experiences have their pristine freshness. That is why the 
old themes are perennial. Love is as dazzling a miracle to every lover who 
loves today as if unnumbered millions hadn’t loved since time began. 
Death isn’t trite to you and me because it has been the common lot since 
life first was; nor have the moon and stars grown old because uncounted 
centuries ago, beside the rivers of Babylon and Egypt, or among the hills 
and pasture lands of Israel, or in the wide stillness of Arabia, men saw 
them, and brooded, and wondered, and dreamed. The oldest things in 
the world are the things that also have been new as many times as human 
beings have been born. . . . Now that is what the greatest literature has 
always built on. Its roots strike deep into the eternally familiar.— 
John Livingston Lowes^ 

1 Printed by permission of, and special arrangement with, Houghton MijSin 
Company, the authorized publishers. 


220 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


ANSWER 2a 

No two works are ever alike, and those that live through the ages 
satisfying each generation cannot die—that is, they are not forgotten and 
remain in libraries as rare editions but are reprinted and reread by each 
generation as living standards of literature by which the modern literature 
is judged. There is really no need for further literary production except 
perhaps for the fact that expression and customs change and developments 
occur that old literature does not take into account. Macbeth, written in 
the seventeenth century, lives today as a literary classic and will continue 
to be such until it is impossible to translate the beauty of expression and 
thought from Shakespeare’s expression to the modern or future EngUsh 
language. Silas Marner and The House of the Seven Gables will live 
also, because each future generation, curious to know how the past gen¬ 
erations lived, will read the books, because they are the most authentic 
(being produced in the age they are written about) and because histories 
do not contain that material. 


ANSWER 26 

THEMES OF LITERATURE 

Lowes’s statement that the foundation of literature is ever the same and 
that the same old themes are ever interesting is vividly illustrated by 
Shakespeare in his tragedy Macbeth. Here the author uses as his theme the 
triumph of good over evil and the punishment of crime. In the Bible, in 
the old Greek and Roman literature, in Shakespeare’s time, and even now 
this same theme is used, for when shall the world cease to believe and 
begin to discredit the reward of virtue? The answer, of course, is “Never.” 

“A little child shall lead them” comes from the Bible, but it is exempli¬ 
fied by George Eliot in her immortal Silas Marner. Throughout the ages 
we have always had children, and it is always their duty to inspire and 
provide a diversion for older people, to lead them out of the depths of 
despair, and to help make their lives joyful. In one of our recent novels, 
Warwick Deeping’s Sorrell and Son, the same theme is again used, and 
we see how a small boy helped to rebuild the wrecked life of his father. 

Another everlasting principle of our lives is that of courage and chivalry. 
War novels deal with such ideals, but not so delicately as has Tennyson 
in his Idylls of the King. Here we see the love of beauty, respect for 
woman and the aged, faithfulness, truthfulness to self and friend, and 
courage, all cleverly and artistically illustrated. When we have a civiliza¬ 
tion that needs to give no thought to such things, then this theme will die 
out. At present it shows not even the slightest sign of middle age. 

Just as “all the world loves a lover,” so all the world loves a mystery, 
and themes like Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables live on. 


PRECIS, REPORTS, AND EXAMINATIONS 


221 


Life will always be too drab and uninteresting to satisfy our desires for 
excitement and mystery, and consequently we need something with a 
supernatural element to make the balance. This tale is simply exemplary 
of the many such poems and novels which might serve as dessert to our 
frugal lives, devoid of excitement. Take “The Raven” or “The Ancient 
Mariner” to liven up your interests if you discover that homework or 
writing themes is getting just a bit monotonous. 

Practice 11 

1. Write answers to as many of the examination questions on pages 
216, 217, and 218 as your teacher assigns. 

2. To a friend who is soon to take an especially important examina¬ 
tion—a College Entrance Examination Board or scholarship examina¬ 
tion, for example—and who has asked you for some suggestions on 
taking an examination, "write a pointed and helpful letter. 


CHAPTER XII 

DEBATING 

The Question 

For a debate choose an interesting two-sided question, and 
state it clearly, briefly, and definitely. The question should be 
a timely, vital one that is still unsettled. Avoid a broad or com¬ 
plicated question, a proposition which can never be proved or 
disproved, and a proposition which has not in it. State the ques¬ 
tion in a sentence having one subject and one predicate unless 
a modifying clause is needed. 

Practice 1 

Criticize these questions for debate: 

1. The trolley is more useful than the automobile. 

2. Cigarette smoking is injurious to boys. 

3. The pen is mightier than the sword. 

4. Grant was a greater general than Napoleon. 

5. Moral requirements for high-school graduation should be as high 
as scholastic requirements. 

6. The United States should not belong to the League of Nations. 

7. Law is a better profession than medicine. 

Finding Material 

Webster said, first examine my own mind searchingly to 
find out what I know about the subject, and then I read to learn 
what I don’t know about it.” The Readers^ Guide, which is a 
continuation of Poole’s Index from the year 1900, is an index 
of the articles in all magazines. Perhaps the librarian will pre¬ 
pare a bibliography on your subject. On a local question ask 
the people who know the facts; on a school question interview 
the principal, superintendent, teachers, pupils, and parents. 

Other publications which contain information valuable in 
debate are: 

The Congressional Record 

Census Reports 


222 


DEBATING 


223 


New International Year Book 
Encyclopadia Britannica 
New International Encyclopedia 
Statesman's Year Book 
The American Year Book 
Tribune Almanac 
Eagle Almanac 
World Almanac 
Who^s Who 

Who’s Who in America 

Bliss’s New Encyclopedia of Social Reform 

W. T. Foster’s Argumentation and Debating 

Intercollegiate Debates 

The Handbook Series 

Index of the New York Times 

E. M. Phelps’s Debaters’ Manual 

Reference Shelf 

University Debaters’ Annual 

Abstract of the Census 

Statistical Abstract 

Catalog of the Public Documents of the United States 
The Public Information Service 

Main Issues 

The main issues map out the work that a debater must do to 
win. They are the divisions of the proposition, the points which 
must be proved to prove the case, the points on which there is 
a clash of opinion. Each is narrower in scope than the main 
question, but together they cover the whole question. 

On the question Resolved, That one period each week of 
military training should be required of every physically fit high- 
school boy,^^ the affirmative will maintain— 

1. That military training develops the body; 

2. That military training develops mental alertness, concentration, 
accuracy, and prompt obedience useful in any occupation; and 

3. That the state and the United States in an emergency need such 
trained citizens. 

The negative will maintain— 

1. That physical training is better bodily training than, military 
instruction; 


224 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


2. That the alertness, concentration, and prompt obedience learned in 
military training are not transferred to other pursuits; 

3. That high-school military training is not so valuable for the future 
citizen soldier as physical training; and 

4. That military training for all high-school boys will make our coun¬ 
try militaristic. 

Opinions clash on the value of military training to the indi¬ 
vidual and its value to the state and United States. The main 
issues therefore are— 

1. A period each week of military training is more valuable to the boy 
than an extra period of physical training or some other school activity. 

2. The welfare of the state and United States demands that high- 
school boys receive military instruction. 

If the affirmative prove conclusively either of these main 
issues, the judges may give them the decision. If they prove 
both issues, the judges must vote for the affirmative, for they 
have accomplished the full task imposed by the question. 

Don’t select too many issues. Usually, two, three, or four 
are better than six or eight. Combine minor issues. Also be sure 
that the main issues cover the ground, prove the case. In a 
debate on military training one team used these issues: 

1. Military training improves the morals of pupils. 

2. Military training teaches quick thinking and prompt obedience. 

3. Military training is excellent physical training. 

These issues do not cover the groimd, because the obligations 
of the individual to his government are disregarded. 

Finally, avoid overlapping issues. One debater decided on 
these issues: 

1. Military training is more beneficial to the pupil than most other 
school exercises. 

2. Military training fits the pupil for fulfilling his obligations to his 
state and country. 

3. Military training prepares a pupil for success in any business or 
profession. 

These are overlapping issues, because the third is just one part 
or phase of the first issue. 


DEBATING 


225 


Three Main Issues 


1 

2 

3 

Three Issues That Do Not Cover the Ground 

1 

2 


3 

Three Issues that Overlap 

Instead of covering the field, these issues cover parts of the field 
twice. 1 and 2 cover the ground (the rectangle in the diagram); 3 covers 
a part of 1. 

1 

A 



2 


Practice 2 

Criticize the sets of issues on the questions: Resolved, That 
suffrage in the state should be restricted by an educational test,” 
and ''Resolved, That the United States government should censor 
moving-picture films.” 

1 

(1) Is there any need for the restriction of suffrage by an educational 
test? 
















226 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


(2) Do politicians influence the voting of uneducated people?' 

2 

(1) Would an educational test improve elections? 

(2) Would an educational test put an end to grafting and selling votes? 

3 

(1) Is the educational test of sufficient value to warrant its use in 
this state? 

(2) Is the test useful to the state? 

(3) Is the test useful to the citizen? 

4 

* (1) Should the uneducated be refused the right to vote? 

(2) Would an educational test be of use in deciding who shall vote? 

5 

(1) Are films at present unsatisfactory? 

(2) Is the present method of censorship satisfactory? 

(3) Would the censorship of films infringe upon the rights of indi¬ 
viduals in the industry? 

6 

(1) Will national censorship lessen juvenile crime and delinquency? 

(2) Will national censorship produce better citizens? 

(3) Will national censorship raise the public standard of morality? 

Introduction, Body of Argument, and Conclusion 

Every debate includes an introduction, body, and conclusion. 
The introduction clears the way for the argument; the body of 
the argument is the proof of the issues; and the conclusion is a 
summary of the proof. 

Introduction 

The history of the question will vary with the question; it 
may be long or short or may be unnecessary if the audience 
know the origin of the question, its importance, and its relation 
to them. If any word or expression is not clear to the audience 
or might be interpreted in two ways, define it. Supplement the 
dictionary definition by a common-sense analysis of the ex¬ 
pression, an appeal to authorities who have defined it, or a study 
of the history of the question. Exclude irrelevant matter. If 


DEBATING 227 

points are by agreement omitted from the discussion, state these. 
Finally state the main issues. 

The introduction should also win the sympathy of the audi¬ 
ence. Hence it should be simple, straightforward, modest, and 
fair. Explain. Do not argue, overstate, or make statements 
that need proof. 


Practice 3 

Criticize these statements in introductions: 

1. The people as a whole find little to complain of in the movies, but 
a few agitators have raised the question of censorship. 

2. The moving picture is admittedly the chief cause of juvenile delin¬ 
quency. 

3. Moving pictures have degenerated so rapidly that they are now a 
menace to public morahty. 

4. A group of self-appointed moralists wish to deprive the plain people 
of their rights. 


Body of Argument 

The body of an argument should be a logical and emphatic 
grouping of facts, authoritative opinion, and reasoning to prove 
the main issues. DonT advance weak arguments. Hit hard. 
One good reason is more convincing than several poor ones. An 
old couplet runs, 

"When one’s proofs are aptly chosen 
Four are as valid as a dozen. 


What a Brief Is 

A brief, as the word indicates, is an argument boiled down. 
This special kind of sentence outline written by a debater as he 
organizes his material has three parts: introduction, brief proper 
(which is the brief of the body of the argument), and conclusion. 
When completed, it is a storehouse of information so arranged 
that the debater can easily find what he needs in his argument 
on the subject. 


228 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


W 


How to Construct a Brief 

1. The introduction should include the history of the ques¬ 
tion (origin, immediate cause for discussion, and importance), 
definition of terms (if definition is necessary), admitted facts 
(if there are any), and points at issue expressed in declarative or 
interrogative sentences. The introduction may have also a re¬ 
statement of the question as defined, an exclusion of irrelevant 
matter, and the contentions of the affirmative and negative. As 
every statement requiring proof is excluded, the introduction is 
the same for the afiirmative and the negative. 

2. DonT connect the topics of the introduction by for, 

3. In the brief proper each subtopic is proof of the main topic 
and is connected with it by for. Use a comma before for and 
no punctuation after. 

4. Begin the brief proper with a statement of what you wish 
to prove. Use as main topics the main issues. 

6. Use complete sentences. In the brief proper avoid the 
compound sentence. 

6. Use the Harvard system of numbering and uniform in¬ 
dention. 

7. Make the conclusion a one-sentence summary of points 
proved. 

8. Use the words introductiony brief proper, conclusion, and 
refutation, but don^t number them. 

For Briefs with Proof of All Assertions 

9. In the brief proper distinguish facts or proof from assertion 
by starring definite, convincing proof. 

Brief for the Affirmative without Full 
Proof of Assertions 

Resolved, That by constitutional amendment Congress should be given 
power to regulate child labor. 


Introduction 

I. Because our government in the near future will be in the hands 
of the children of today, and because the 1920 census shows that 


DEBATING 


229 


1,060,858 children 10 to 15 years of age were then gainfully 
employed, this question concerns every one interested in the 
welfare of children or of our country. 

II. Since 1916 Congress has tried to regulate child labor: 

A. The first federal Child Labor Law, which was passed in 1916 

and prohibited the transportation in interstate commerce of 
the products of child labor in certain industries, was declared 
unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court. 

B. The Supreme Court also declared unconstitutional a law 

enacted in 1919, which provided for a tax of ten per cent 
on the net profits of concerns employing children in viola¬ 
tion of the hour and age standards laid down in the act. 

C. An amendment to the Constitution giving Congress control of 

child labor was passed in 1924 but was not ratified by the 
necessary three-fourths of the states. 

III. By child labor is meant the gainful employment of persons under 

eighteen years of age. 

IV. The points at issue are: 

A. Is child labor a menace to our country? 

B. Is state regulation of child labor adequate? 

C. Is federal regulation the best solution of the problem? 

Brief Proper 

By constitutional amendment Congress should be given power to regu¬ 
late child labor, for 

I. Child labor is a menace to our country, for 

A. It is physically harmful to the child, for 

1. It prevents the young child from attaining his full growth. 

2. The child in industry is more liable to accidents and sick¬ 

ness than the child in school. 

B. The child is denied the opportunity for education and self- 

improvement. 

C. It prevents the child from developing morally. 

D. Child labor lowers the quality of the citizenship of the future. 

E. It undermines family life. 

F. It increases crime. 

II. State regulation of child labor is inadequate, for 

A. Large numbers of children in the United States are gainfully 

employed. 

B. Child labor is steadily increasing. 

C. There is a confusing lack of uniformity in the laws of the 

states. 


230 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


D. Standards of the states are generally low, for 

1. Only thirteen states have standards as high as those in the 

federal law of 1919. 

2. In the other states the standards are lower in regard to 

age, hours, or night work. 

E. Children are employed in industries that are injurious to them. 

III. Federal regulation is the best solution of the problem, for 

A. The federal law of 1916, which was in force nine months before 

being declared unconstitutional, showed such regulation to 
be effective. 

B. Child labor is a national problem, for 

1. Varying state laws cause unfair competition in industry. 

2. State laws are evaded by the movement of the child workers 

from one state to another. 

Conclusion 

Since child labor is a menace to our country, since state regulation of 
child labor is inadequate, since federal regulation is the best solution of 
the problem. Congress should by constitutional amendment be given the 
power to regulate child labor. 


Bibliography 

Child Labor and the Constitution, R. G. Fuller 
The Meaning of Child Labor, R. G. Fuller 
Child Labor, Julia E. Johnson 
Pamphlet of the National Child Labor Committee 
Child Labor and the Social Conscience, D. W. Clark 
Pamphlet by James A. Emery entitled Child Labor Amendment (Na¬ 
tional Association of Manufacturers, 50 Church Street, New York 
City) 

Children in Bondage, Edwin Markham, Benjamin B. Lindsey, and 
George Creel 

The Child Labor Problem, Scott Nearing 
New International Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, p. 189 

Hearings on proposed Child Labor Amendment, Sixty-eighth Congress, 
First Session, March 8, 1924 
Some Ethical Gains through Legislation, Florence Kelley 

Notice that the four main topics in the introduction of the 
preceding brief are the importance of the question, the history 
of the question, the definition of terms, and the points at issue, 


DEBATING 


231 


and that the three main headings (I II, III) of the brief proper 
are the points at issue. 

Practice 4 

Show that in the preceding brief proper each subtopic is proof of the 
main topic under which it stands. 


Practice 5 

Criticize these arguments. Note that for doesn^t always intro¬ 
duce proof. What would be proof of each assertion? 

1. Many voters are bribed, for many voters have no money. 

2. The educational test for suffrage will reduce the number of illiterates 
in the state, for the state has a high percentage of immigrants. 

3. He went to bed at nine o’clock, for he was tired. 

4. Many voters cannot read and write, for many citizens never learn 
to read and write. 

5. A large number of voters don’t know what they are voting for, for 
they don’t always elect the best candidate. 

6. She failed in economics, for she entered the class two weeks late. 

7. Many Italians have emigrated to the United States, for in this 
country wages are higher than in Italy. 

8. Mr. Davis is happy, for he is rich. 

9. The student council helps pupils to obtain scholarships, for obtain¬ 
ing a scholarship brings honor to the school. 

Practice 6 

Write a brief on either side of one of the school questions at 
the end of the chapter. 


Brief for the Affirmative with Full Proof 
OF Assertions 


Resolved, That the national government should censor moving-picture 
films. 


Introduction 


I. The moving-picture industry of the United States, which repre¬ 
sents a capital investment of $1,500,000,000 and collects 
$500,000,000 in admissions each year, influences naore people 
than our schools, our churches, and our ethical institutions 
combined. Each day 20,000,000 people witness motion pic¬ 
tures in the 18,000 theaters of the country. 


232 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


II. The history of film censorship covers twenty-two years. 

A. Chicago introduced film censorship in 1907; San Francisco, 

in 1908; New York City, in 1909. 

B. Films at present are censored by the National Board of Review, 

seven state boards, and thirty-five city boards. 

C. A bill providing for federal censorship was introduced in 

Congress in 1919, 1923, and 1926. 

III. By censorship is meant the establishment of certain specific regu¬ 

lations for the elimination of harmful pictures or scenes of pic¬ 
tures. The word national suggests that the enforcement of the 
regulations be the duty of a federal board of censors. 

IV. The question of the constitutionality of such a law is irrelevant, 

because any legal difficulty could be overcome by an amend¬ 
ment to the Constitution. 

V. The points at issue are: 

A. Is the present volunteer, city, and state censorship adequate? 

B. Will federal censorship improve unsatisfactory conditions? 

C. Will federal censorship interfere with the rights of manufac¬ 

turers and exhibitors of films? 

Brief Proper 

The national government should censor moving-picture films, for 

I. The present volunteer, city, and state censorship is inadequate, 
for 

'V A. The organization, financing, and powers of the National Board 
of Review make it an unsatisfactory body for film censor¬ 
ship, for 

1. *The members are a self-appointed group of New York 

citizens. {Survey, April, 1920) 

2. *More than ninety-six per cent of their expenses are paid 

by the manufacturers. (Report of National Board, 
1916-1917) 

3. *Few meeting are held. (Hearings before the Committee 

on Education, Sixty-ninth Congress, First Session, p. 49) 

4. Many board members have no part in the censorship, for 
a. *Dr. Cadman, Dr. MacFarland, and Reverend C. B. 

Ackley said that they were never asked to review 
pictures. .{Brooklyn Eagle, February 20, 1921) 

5. *The board has no power to enforce its decisions or to com¬ 

pel producers to submit films prior to exhibiting them. 
{Survey, August 7, 1915; Hearings before the Committee 
on Education, p. 49) 


DEBATING 


233 


6. *The board has no authority over posters, handbills, or 
other advertising of motion pictures. (Pamphlet issued 
by the National Board of Review, February, 1915) 

B. The National Board of Review fails to eliminate objection¬ 
able films or parts of films, for 

1. The state boards find that harmful pictures are approved 

by the National Board of Review, for 
a. *From 228 films examined, the National Board made 47 
eliminations; the Pennsylvania board, 1464. (W. S. 
Chase’s Catechism on Motion Pictures, p. 24) 
h. *Of the 228 films the Pennsylvania board condemned 
16; the National Board, 0. (W. S. Chase’s Catechism 
on Motion Pictures, p. 24) 

2. Few performances are free from objectionable scenes, for 
a. *Many comedies—for example, the Sennett comedies— 

are a combination of cheap rowdyism and vulgar dis¬ 
play of emotion. 

h. Many serious plays have a bad influence, for 

(1) *Western plays are not true to life in their gun play 

and dance-hall scenes. 

(2) Murder and robbery scenes lead to crime, for 

(а) *Former Governor Miller of New York, when he 

signed the Lusk-Clayton Motion Picture Law, 
said that the moving picture had become a men¬ 
ace to the youth. {Literary Digest, May 14,1921) 

(б) *Many boys in reformatories have confessed that 

they received their criminal ideas from screen 
dramas. (J. Rowland Sheldon of Big Brothers) 

(c) *A New York City deputy police commissioner 

stated that the greater part of juvenile delin¬ 
quency is due to the motion picture. {Literary 
Digest, May 14, 1921) 

(d) *In December, 1920, to reduce crime, the chief of 

police of Chicago forbade the exhibition of any 
picture that showed a crime committed. 

(e) *Herbert C. Parsons found that of sixty-one pro¬ 

bation officers fifty-six believed that the movies 
are responsible for crime. 

(/) *In Mecklenburg County, North Carolina^ two 
small boys who dressed as cowboys and robbed 
a store said they got the idea from the movies. 
{New York Sun, February 28, 1929) 

(g) *Two young men of eighteen who on October 7, 
1927, placed rocks and ties on the railroad track 


234 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


at Bolton, Connecticut, said that they got their 
inspiration from the movies. 

Qi) *Warden McKenty of Eastern Penitentiary, Penn¬ 
sylvania, says, “Criminals are made in the movie 
houses.” (Oberholtzer’s The Morals of the 
Movies, p. 54) 

ii) *Eminent psychologists say that even though the 
picture may show the criminal punished, the 
boy’s mind is impressed with the criminal act, 
while the moral goes unheeded. (Dr. A. T. 
Poffenberger, Scientific Monthly, April, 1921; 
William A. McKeever, Good Housekeeping; Pro¬ 
fessor S. B. Heckman, Current Opinion, April, 
1922) 

(3) *Sex plays, sensational plays, underworld plays, vulgar 

plays, and profane plays are common— What a Young 
Girl Learned from Life, Sex, The Passion Flower, 
Dangerous Lovers, The Brand, Tyrant Fear, Passion, 
The Penalty, The Devil’s Pass-Key, Would You For¬ 
give? Underworld, Jesse James, Souls for Sables, 
Variety. 

(4) *Professor Burgess of Chicago University in a survey 

of 400,000 school children proved that motion pic¬ 
tures give children a wrong idea of life. (Hearings 
before the Committee on Education, p. 47) 

(5) *China, Japan, Turkey, and France have protested 

against the morals of American films shown in their 
countries. (Hearings before the Committee on Edu¬ 
cation, p. 95) 

(6) *Of 1765 motion pictures examined by a committee of 

four hundred women of the Chicago Political Equality 
League, 123 tended to create a contempt for law, 353 
tended to cause delinquency, 588 showed scenes sug¬ 
gesting criminal acts, and 229 had immoral scenes. 
{General Federation Magazine, January, 1919, p. 13) 
3. The producers acknowledge that harmful pictures are 
screened, for 

a. *Five companies in a statement to a commission on 
education of the United States House of Represen¬ 
tatives said, “The production of vicious plays is in¬ 
creasing, and this cancer must be cut out.” 

h. *Will H. Hays admits that there are objectionable fi lms 
but says the volume is not great. {Literary Digest, 
November 29, 1924, p. 33) 


DEBATING 235 

4. Friends of the movies admit that many objectionable films 
are shown, for 

a. *Sir Gilbert Parker in a defense of the motion picture 
admits that seventy-five per cent of the films are bad. 
{Bookman, November, 1921) 

C. City and state censorship is not solving the problem, for 

1. *Pennsylvania, New York, Kansas, Ohio, Virginia, Florida, 

and Maryland are the only states that censor films. 

2. *Only 35 municipalities have censorship boards. 

3. *Two million people saw Passion, a picture rejected by four 

state censorship boards. {Literary Digest, August 6,1921) 

(Proof of the second and third issues is omitted.) 


Conclusion 

Since the present volunteer, city, and state censorship is inadequate, 
since federal censorship would improve unsatisfactory conditions, and 
since federal censorship would not interfere with the rights of manufac¬ 
turers and exhibitors of films, therefore the national government should 
censor moving-picture films. 


Bibliography 

Morals of the Movies, Oberholtzer 

Hearings before the Committee on Education, House of Representa¬ 
tives, Sixty-ninth Congress, First Session, pp. 1-224 
Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, Inc., Bulletin 
Number 5 

Motion Pictures, J. J. Phelan 

The Public and the Motion Picture Industry, W. M. Seabury 
The Outlook, February 14, 1923 

The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 
November, 1926 

The University of the State of New York Education Department, 
Handbook 38 

The Motion Picture, Charles C. Pettijohn 
Editorial in the Indianapolis News, January 2, 1925 
American Mercury, July, 1927 
American Labor World, February, 1928, pp. 12-14 
State Censorship of Motion Pictures, J. R. Rutland 
Review of Reviews, April and July, 1927 


236 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 
Practice 7 


Write briefs with full proof of every assertion on a number of 
the questions at the end of the chapter. Write the introduction, 
the proof of one issue, and the conclusion. 

Introduction 

When in the introduction of the debate you reach the issues, 
it isn’t enough to state them. Your opponent may in a few 
minutes show that your issues aren’t the main issues. The most 
important part of the introduction therefore is such an analysis 
of the question as will make clear to the audience that you have 
selected the issues that must be proved to prove the case and 
that if you prove the issues the decision must be in your favor. 
Note the last paragraph of the following example. 

Example of introduction: 

Resolved, That the national government should censor moving-picture 
films. 

The motion-picture industry began about thirty years ago as a penny- 
in-the-slot affair. Now sixty-eight thousand miles of films are produced 
annually in the United States at a cost of $37,000,000 for the films alone. 
Eighteen thousand theaters exhibit these films. The movie represents a 
capital of $1,500,000,000 and collects $500,000,000 in admissions each 
year. The United States, a pioneer in the industry, at present produces 
nine-tenths of the films shown throughout the world. American films are 
exhibited in every civilized country and in a number of barbarous lands. 

F. B. Stevenson of the Brooklyn Eagle has well called the moving pic¬ 
ture ^‘the most powerful medium of expression and impression yet in¬ 
vented.” Thomas A. Edison says, ^‘Whoever controls the motion picture 
industry controls the most powerful medium of influence over the people.” 
Charles A. McMahon, director of the Motion Picture Bureau of the 
Roman Catholic Welfare Council, said recently, ^The gigantic business 
of movies is daily influencing more people than our schools, our churches, 
and our ethical organizations combined. One person in every five in the 
United States or one-fifth of our 110,000,000 population attends moving- 
picture theaters every day. This is a startling fact, for it means that 
over 20,000,000 persons are being regularly and continually influenced for 
good or evil. And about 20% to 25% are children under sixteen years 


DEBATING 


237 

of age.” Naturally an industry which has such a free field and which 
influences so mauy people is subjected to much discussion and criticism. 

Chicago, the pioneer in moving-picture censorship, began censoring 
films in November,^ 1907; San Francisco, in 1908. In New York City the 
Public Service Institute took over the work of previewing films in March, 
1909,^ at the request of the exhibitors, who wished to silence public 
criticism. In June of the same year at the request of the manufacturers 
the work was made nation-wide, and the National Board of Review was 
organized. This voluntary board, seven state boards, and thirty-five city 
boards constitute the sole check we have on the activities of an industry 
which influences 20,000,000 people daily. We of the affirmative main¬ 
tain that the system of editorship or censorship which is so successful in 
seven states should be nationalized by the authorization of a federal 
board which will view every picture destined for exhibition and reject, in 
whole or in part, any picture deemed unfit for public presentation. A 
bill providing for such federal censorship was introduced in Congress 
in 1919, 1923, and 1926, but was not enacted into law. 

The Board of Review of Pennsylvania, which censors from twelve 
million to twenty million feet of film annually, has defined satisfactorily 
the word censor. This board of review, which has been serving as a 
model for the rest of the country, prohibits what is “sacrilegious, obscene, 
indecent, or immoral,” and “may tend to debase or corrupt morals.” 
Some of the heads under which the board has classified its objections are: 
indecorous, ambiguous, and irreverent titles and subtitles; cruelty to 
animals; the irreverent treatment of sacred subjects; drunken scenes 
carried to excess; cruelty to young infants, and excessive cruelty and 
torture to adults, especially to women; the exhibition of profuse bleeding; 
nude figures; offensive vulgarity and impropriety in conduct and dress; 
indecorous dancing; excessively passionate love scenes; gruesome murders 
and strangulation scenes; executions; the effects of vitriol throwing; the 
drug habit; the materialization of the conventional figure of Christ. The 
New York state censors eliminate a film or part of a film which is “obscene, 
indecent, immoral, inhuman, sacrilegious, or of such a character that its 
exhibition would lead to corrupt morals or incite to crime.” 

A discussion of the constitutionality of such a law is irrelevant, because 
if the United States Supreme Court should declare the law unconstitu¬ 
tional, censorship could be established by an amendment to the Consti¬ 
tution. The question, ^‘Resolved, That the United States government 
should censor moving pictures,” calls for a discussion of the wisdom or 
advisability of such censorship, not of the legal method of establishing it. 

In the discussion of the question we shall first survey the moving-pic¬ 
ture business under state, city, and volunteer censorship and shall prove 
that present conditions are unsatisfactory, that many objectionable films 
are exhibited. We shall then consider the efficacy of the remedy advo- 


238 


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cated, and finally discuss the contention that federal censorship would 
be an unwarranted interference with the rights of the moving-picture 
producers. These are the points upon which a decision of the matter 
must rest: present conditions, the efficacy of the remedy proposed, and 
the justice of the remedy. The main issues therefore are: (1) Is the 
present volunteer, state, and city censorship adequate? (2) Will federal 
censorship improve unsatisfactory conditions? (3) Will federal censor¬ 
ship interfere with the rights of the manufacturers and exhibitors of films? 
—Pupil’s Debate 

Pkactice 8 

Write or speak the introductions of the arguments briefed. 

Clearness 

The English of debate should be clear as crystal. The audi¬ 
ence have no opportunity to return to a statement to search 
out its meaning. Debaters are prone to forget that, matters 
simple to them after weeks of study on a question may seem 
complicated or abstruse to the audience, who have never given 
the question a serious thought. 

Accuracy 

The debater must say exactly what he means. Exaggeration 
and inaccuracy destroy the confidence of the audience. 

Unity 

A debate must be rigidly unified. Sometimes it will be hard 
for you to eliminate. You may like an argument or an illustra¬ 
tion because it is vivid and picturesque or because it sounds 
learned, and yet know that the argument isn’t part of your case. 
Be a hero. Omit everything that doesn’t bear directly on a main 
issue you are proving. 

Coherence 

Coherence in debate includes logical order, announcement of 
that order, and attention to transitions. The logical arrange¬ 
ment of a speech or an entire debate is sometimes hard to de- 


DEBATING 


239 


termine. Often two or more arrangements of the material are 
possible. A debater should imitate the English dramatist who 
said he first told the audience what the character was going to 
do, then showed him doing the act, then told that he had done it. 
The second speaker, for example, at the beginning of his speech 
should state briefly what the first speaker proved and what is 
the task set for the second speaker. When he has proved one 
point, he should make clear to the audience that he is passing 
on to another point. He should, however, avoid such hackneyed 
transitional phrases as ^^now;” ^^my next point is;” have just 
proved to you-. I shall now prove to you;” ^fiet us now con¬ 

sider;” ‘‘let us now take up.” The logical structure of the de¬ 
bate must at all times be kept before the eyes of the audience. 

Emphasis 

Emphasis includes placing important ideas at the beginning 
and the end, giving extra time to the chief arguments, and mak¬ 
ing the entire speech concrete and vigorous. To grip the audi¬ 
ence, place at the beginning a strong point vividly phrased and 
aptly illustrated; to secure a climax put the most convincing 
argument at the end. The beginning must catch the attention 
and win the sympathy of the audience, the body of the speech 
must present convincing proof, and the end must clinch the 
point. If you and your two colleagues decide on three main 
issues, donT assume that each debater should prove one issue. 
Perhaps one issue needs more proof than the other two combined. 
The concrete, the specific, and appeals to the imagination make 
an argument more forceful. DonT rely on bare statistics. They 
may be both dull and meaningless. Statistics take hold when 
comparisons give them significance. For example, the statement 
that the United States spent during the World War forty-four 
billion dollars means little to most people. The explanation that 
this sum exceeded by a half the total government expenditure 
in the preceding one hundred twenty-eight years of the Republic 
gives it significance. The further explanation that this sum is 
about one-fifth of the total wealth of the country and that to 



240 


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pay the debt at one time the government would have had to 
levy a tax of twenty per cent on all personal property and real 
estate brings the fact closer to the hearer and makes it stick 
in his memory. 

Concrete and Specific 

In proportion as men delight in 
battles, bull-fights, and combats of 
gladiators, will they punish by 
hanging, burning, and the rack. 

—Spencer 

A woolen and worsted weaver 
in the United States earns an aver¬ 
age of 65 cents an hour, in Great 
Britain 30 cents, in Germany 20 
cents, in France 13 cents, and in 
Italy 8 cents. The American cot¬ 
ton weaver earns an average of 40 
cents an hour, the German 17 
cents, the Frenchman less than 11 
cents, and the Italian 7 cents an 
hour.— Hoover 

Example—four paragraphs of argument: 

Young people are influenced by what they see as well as by what 
they hear and read. At the hearing on a censorship bill before the Massa¬ 
chusetts Legislature, a report was submitted by the National Board of 
Review that probation officers throughout the country had rendered 
a verdict that “motion pictures are not directly responsible to any appre¬ 
ciable degree, if at all, for juvenile delinquency.’^ In order to verify 
this report, Herbert C. Parsons, deputy commissioner of probation of 
Massachusetts, sent letters to 155 probation officers. The answers which 
he received disclosed the fact that only six officials had been asked their 
opinions by the National Board of Review. Three of these sent their 
opinions, and the answers of two were that pictures displayed without 
restrictions are a menace. Mr. Parsons did not ask the probation officers 
what their opinions were concerning censorship but merely wanted to 
verify the contention of the National Board of Review. Fifty-six men, 
however, voluntarily stated that they were in favor of rigid censorship, 
while five were against it. 

In December, 1920, Chief of Police Fitzmorris of Chicago gave orders 


Abstract and General 

In proportion as the people of 
a country are cruel and barbarous, 
their laws will be severe. 


Weavers earn more in the United 
States than in other countries. 


DEBATING 


241 


forbidding the exhibition of any screen drama that showed a crime 
committed, even though the end might show the criminal in a prison 
cell. “It will make no difference whether the criminal shown is a hero 
or a villain,” said the chief. The order was issued after three youthful 
robbers, who were sentenced to the State Reformatory at Pontiac, 
said their crimes had been inspired by a “crook” moving picture. 

At one time it was said that pictures dealing with crime, if they pointed 
a moral, were not to be condemned, but this idea no longer holds. Pro¬ 
fessor William A. McKeever, of Kansas State Agricultural College, an 
eminent psychologist, and Rowland C. Sheldon, general secretary of 
the Big Brother Movement, an eminent social worker, writing respectively 
in Good Housekeeping and the Bookman, say substantially the same 
thing; namely, that “after seeing a crime portrayed on the screen, the 
child’s camera-eye does not register the unexciting scenes of the culprit 
in the prison cell. Hence the movies are an excellent primary school 
for criminals.” And, as Professor McKeever points out, adults as 
well as children are thus incited, though to a less degree; those adults of 
low mental development, from whom our criminals are largely recruited, 
are particularly affected. 

In the Scientific Monthly for April, 1921, Professor A. T. Poffenberger, 
of Columbia University, says, “Children, and older persons of retarded 
mental development, are unable to resist the suggestions of posters and 
lurid advertisements. Motion pictures may by an ending which shows 
the criminal brought to justice carry a moral to the intelligent adult, 
but that which impresses the mind of the mentally young and colors their 
imagination is the excitement and bravado accompanying the criminal 
act, while the moral is unheeded. Their minds cannot logically reach 
the conclusion to which the chain of circumstances will drive the normal 
adult.”— Pupil’s Debate 

Practice 9 

Write or speak the arguments briefed. 

Delivery 

A speech in a school debate should be extemporaneous. You 
may think at first that you can speak more smoothly and con¬ 
vincingly if you memorize your speech. But the audience will 
know that you are reciting, not debating; and your speech will 
not be so convincing as that of a less polished debater who thinks 
on his feet. Andrew Carnegie had only two speaking rules: 
^^Make yourself perfectly at home before your audience, and 
simply talk to them, not at them.’^ 


242 


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Debate Custom 

Address the presiding officer as ^‘Mister Chairman^’ or ‘^Madam 
Chairman.” Do not separately address the judges or other groups 
in the audience. Do not refer to opponents or colleagues by 
name. Say “the first speaker on the affirmative,” “my col¬ 
league,” “the preceding speaker,” or “the second speaker on the 
negative.” In direct proof the order of speakers is first affirma¬ 
tive, first negative, second affirmative, etc. In rebuttal the 
negative usually speaks first. This plan gives the affirmative the 
advantage of the last speech—a fair arrangement because the 
burden of proof rests upon the affirmative. In other words, if 
neither side advances definite proof or if the negative speakers 
overthrow the arguments of the affirmative without presenting 
any of their own, the affirmative have lost the debate, because 
they have failed to prove the proposition. A warning signal one 
or two minutes before a speaker’s time is up helps him to close 
before the final gavel instead of leaving his speech hanging in 
the air. If he is speaking when the final gavel falls, he should 
conclude the sentence quickly and briefly and take his seat. 

First Speaker Affirmative 

The first speaker affirmative clears the way for the argument 
by presenting the introduction and then proceeds to the proof 
of his issue or issues. Because a case well explained is half won, 
the first speaker ordinarily spends about half his time on intro¬ 
ductory matter and the rest on the proof of his issue. 

First Speaker Negative 

The first speaker on the negative side must be prepared to 
supply any important introductory material omitted by the first 
speaker affirmative but should not repeat facts already pre¬ 
sented. He may either accept the definition of terms and issues 
or substitute his own and prove to the audience that the affirma¬ 
tive definition is not fair and that their issues are not the main 
points to be proved. After this introductory work he proceeds 
to the proof of his issue. 




DEBATING 


243 


If the first speaker affirmative explains clearly and argues 
convincingly and persuasively, he commonly wins the sympathy 
of the audience for his side. The first speaker negative should 
his fairness, knowledge of his subject, earnestness, sense of 
humor, clearness, and enthusiasm endeavor to win the audience 
over to the negative side. 

Other Main Speeches 

A good debate, unlike a series of orations or declamations, is 
a closely connected series of speeches on a subject. Each de¬ 
bater should listen attentively to what his opponents say, and, 
by referring to their arguments, changing his speech, if neces¬ 
sary, to meet their case, or refuting thoroughly a point, adapt 
or adjust his argument to his opponents^ in such a way as to 
make it a real part of a debate and not just an oration or an 
extemporaneous speech on the subject. 

The last speaker on each side should conclude his speech with 
a clear, brief, easy, forceful restatement of the main issues and 
proofs. A good conclusion is neither a bare summary nor a 
spread-eagle peroration, but a dignified, convincing restatement 
and enforcement of the chief arguments. 

Asking Questions 

If you insist that your opponents answer a fair question, you 
may enforce your point and drive them upon the horns of a di¬ 
lemma. Lincoln lost the senatorship from Illinois and won the 
presidency by asking Douglas the question, ‘'Can the people of 
a territory in any lawful way exclude slavery from its limits 
prior to the formation of a state constitution?” A dozen ques¬ 
tions, however, will make the audience think that your argu¬ 
ments are interrogation points rather than facts. 

Rebuttal Method and Matter 

To be ready for refutation prepare rebuttal cards with facts, 
statistics, statements of authorities or experts, illustrations, 
analogies, instances, principles, or reasoning for the attack of 


244 


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every important argument your opponents are likely to ad¬ 
vance. During the debate take a few notes. Many a debater 
makes the mistake of spending his entire time in taking notes 
instead of using most of it for listening, finding the prepared re¬ 
buttal cards, and thinking what arguments are worth answering 
and how he will meet them. 

In preparing to refute an argument, ask these two questions: 
^‘How do you know?^^ and ^What of it?’^ Perhaps you can deny 
your opponent’s facts or statistics or present other facts and 
figures that put the matter in a different light. Perhaps you 
can point out that his authorities and experts are prejudiced or 
unreliable, his reasoning faulty, his statements inconsistent, or 
his principles, maxims, or proverbs unsound. An example, anal¬ 
ogy, or humorous absurdity may enforce your point. One 
foolish statement is usually enough to lose a debate. Possibly 
you can refute his authority with a better authority or produce 
from one of his authorities a quotation which indicates that the 
authority’s attitude was not fairly presented. Or you may admit 
what he has said and show that his proofs are inadequate, are 
beside the point, or really strengthen your case. The last type 
of refutation is called turning the tables. 

Fallacies 

A part of the job of refutation is exposing fallacies, which are 
errors in the reasoning process. 

Hasty Generalization 

When after observing individual trees, one reaches the con¬ 
clusion that maple trees shed their leaves in the fall, the general¬ 
ization is sound. On the contrary, the generalization that the 
youngest child of a family is always spoiled is unsound. When 
Cecil Lighthead says, ^ ^Howard and Harold White are excellent 
students; therefore their three brothers will undoubtedly be ex¬ 
cellent students,” he is jumping at a conclusion. To refute Cecil’s 
statement one might point out that the generalization was based 


DEBATING 


245 


on only two examples and that often the members of a family 
vary widely as students. 

False Analogy 

An argument from analogy is an inference that two objects 
which are alike in some respects are alike in another particular. 
W. J. Bryan in his argument Preparedness and Peace proves by a 
comparison of nations and two farmers that a pistol-toting nation 
is a menace to the peace of the world. When we argue that be¬ 
cause the squirrel buries nuts for the winter, we should prepare 
for old age; that because a puppy learns by eating soap and biting 
the ears of big dogs, a boy should look out for himself; or that be¬ 
cause Washington High School publishes a weekly newspaper, 
Hamilton High School should have one, we are using analogies. 
The argument is valid only if (1) the points of similarity outweigh 
the points of difference and (2) there is no essential difference. If, 
for example, Washington High has ten times as many students 
as Hamilton, this one essential difference destroys the value of 
the analogy. 

Mistaking the Cause 

Every happening has both a cause and an effect. An important 
part of argument is finding causes or effects. In arguments about 
prohibition, for example, one side commonly proves that in re¬ 
cent years the death rate has decreased, demands for charity have 
decreased, schools have grown, deposits in savings banks have 
increased, and working people are buying automobiles and other 
luxuries, and points to prohibition as the cause; the other side 
proves that lawlessness, crimes of violence, and drunkenness are 
common and calls prohibition the cause. Of course, prohibition 
may be the sole cause, one of many causes, a major cause, a minor 
cause, or no cause at all. To prove his point the debater needs to 
show that prohibition is the sole cause or a major cause. 

Ignoring the Question 

Ignoring the question is evading or missing the real point at 
issue. If on the question, ^^Resolved, That pupils should receive 
credit for participation in athletics,’’ an affirmative speaker spends 


246 


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all his time proving that athletic sports are valuable to boys and 
girls, he is ignoring the question, for swimming during the summer, 
cutting the grass, tending the furnace, making a dress, repairing 
the automobile, and many other activities are valuable but do 
not receive school credit. 

Macaulay attacks this fallacy of arguing beside the point when 
he says, ‘‘The advocates of Charles, like the advocates of other 
malefactors against whom overwhelming evidence is produced, 
generally decline all controversy about the facts, and content 
themselves with calling testimony to character. He had so many 
private virtues! ... A good father! A good husband! Ample 
apologies indeed for fifteen years of persecution, tyranny, and 
falsehood!’’ The fact that Algernon is kind to his grandfather 
or has good table manners is not proof that a short story he handed 
in is his own work. Cracking jokes instead of presenting proof 
and appealing to tradition and prejudice are other types of ig¬ 
noring the question. 

Begging the Question 

Begging the question is assuming the truth or falsity of what one 
is trying to prove. When a person argues that Robert Frost is 
not a great poet because there are no great living American poets, 
he is assuming the truth of a larger statement which includes the 
one he started out to prove and hence is begging the question. 
When a debater states his question, Resolvedj That the brutal 
game of football should be abolished,” he is assuming that foot¬ 
ball is brutal instead of proving the game brutal, and therefore 
is begging the question. 

Statistics 

“Figures do not lie, but liars do figure” is an old and true 
saying. Careless, stupid, and dishonest people often use statis¬ 
tics to prove what the figures do not prove at all, because the 
units are not comparable, or because the figures cover an abnor¬ 
mal period or do not cover a long enough period of time. If child 
laborers in one state include boys and girls who do housework 
and farmwork and in another state exclude these classes, the 


DEBATING 


247 


totals are not comparable. In discussing wages, prices, street-car 
fares, deposits in savings banks, and the like, one must remember 
that a dollar buys only about half as much as it did twenty years 
ago. The earnings of coal miners illustrate the fact that the 
figures must cover a sufficiently long period. Because miners 
are often without work, annual earnings mean more than daily 
earnings. 

Practice 10 

1. Does the relative number of ships show the comparative strength 
of the navies of the world? Why? 

2. Does the number of arrests for drunkenness show the comparative 
amount of drunkenness in various cities? Why? 

3. Does the average wealth of the people of a community show whether 
there is need of charity? Why? 

Practice 11 

In most of the following the reasoning is faulty. In each case 
of unsound or unconvincing reasoning, name the fallacy or de¬ 
fect and show clearly that the argument is not convincing. 

1. Going to college doesn’t pay. Mr. Williams went to college and 
has failed in business. 

2. The honor system will work in our high school, for it is successful 
in Blank College. 

3. Mrs. Brewer is an excellent housekeeper; therefore she would 
manage well the state housekeeping if elected governor. 

4. The B. M. T. is now a paying concern. Bindley A. Garrison, the 
receiver appointed for the company, made this assertion last week. 

5. The left-handed man lacks will-power, for, if he did not, he would 
not be left-handed. 

6. I’m not superstitious, but I’ll never again start anything on Friday, 
the thirteenth of the month. We started to Chicago on Friday, the 
thirteenth, and had two blowouts on the way. 

7. I won’t pay $30 for that suit. I bought just as good a one five 
years ago for $25. 

8. Mr. Brown should never drive an automobile. Last week a runaway 
horse came down the street while Mr. Brown was driving; and Mr. 
Brown, being very nervous, drove his car into a telephone pole. 

9. Because the Yankees won the baseball championship of the United 
States last year and the year before, they will win it this year. 


248 


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10. Earl Christy, who is noted for his portraits of beautiful women, 
asked me to sit for a portrait; therefore I must be beautiful. 

11. I should have been given the job rather than Miss Hersey, for 
I have been working for the firm much longer than she. 

12. There is a great deal of dishonesty in politics. Therefore I shall 
not vote. 

13. In recent football games Princeton defeated Vermont by a score 
of 50 to 0, and Columbia defeated Vermont by a score of 30 to 0. There¬ 
fore Princeton will defeat Columbia. 

14. It is unnecessary for us to include meat among our provisions. 
Alfred McCann, the well-known food expert, says that many vegetables 
cheaper than meat possess the same food value. 

15. Mrs. Knapp, the first woman elected to an important office in 
the state of New York, was sent to jail for a misuse of state funds. There¬ 
fore women should not be elected to public office. 

16. This year we wish to cut down the expenses of our company. 
Because advertising is a big expense item, we shall start by eliminat¬ 
ing it. 

17. My father is a Republican (or a Democrat). Therefore I should 
regularly vote for Republican (or Democratic) candidates. 

18. There are about three million people in Chicago. Why should 
I vote? One vote more or less won’t make any difference. 

19. Harry’s umbrella is still in the office; therefore he hasn’t gone 
home. 

20. Buy the Shinebright toothpaste and save three dollars a year. 
With the three dollars you can buy an inner tube for your car. 

21. A city treasurer invested in two years $50,000. His salary was 
$10,000 a year. He had no other income. Therefore he should be tried 
for the misappropriation of public funds. 

22. Since taking your health restorer I have become well and strong. 

I recommend it heartily to all who suffer. 

Place of Refutation 

If a prejudice has been aroused against your side or if some 
argument blocks your progress, clear the way before presenting 
your prepared argument. Such rebuttal should be brief and strik¬ 
ing. Otherwise refutation should be placed at the end of the 
direct speech if it is conclusive, and in the middle if it is not so 
strong. In the rebuttal speech attack first the strongest argu¬ 
ment you can overthrow. 


DEBATING 
Rebuttal Mistakes 


249 


A few common rebuttal mistakes should be guarded against. 

1. Don’t misrepresent your opponent’s argument. If possible, 
use his exact words in stating the argument to be refuted. 

2. Don’t begin the refutation of each point with some un¬ 
varying formula like ‘‘My opponent says-.” 

3. Don’t advance constructive arguments in the rebuttal. 

4. Avoid “scrappy rebuttal” by striking at your opponents’ 
main issues. When you chop down a tree, the branches go with 
it. So when the main arguments fall, the little ones go down 
with them. Don’t spend your refutation time clipping off the 
branches; chop away at the trunk. 

5. When your opponent makes a good point, or gives a sound 
reason or a fact, either admit it or pass it by without comment. 
Don’t attempt to refute arguments which you know you can’t 
overthrow. 

6. Refute only the arguments your opponents advance. Mem¬ 
orized refutation answering the arguments the debater thinks his 
opponents will use is called “canned” rebuttal. 

Closing Rebuttal Speeches 

In addition to refuting arguments, the speaker who closes the 
refutation on each side should, by summarizing briefly the argu¬ 
ments of his side which are still standing and pointing out the 
important arguments of his opponents that have been over¬ 
thrown, give a bird’s-eye view of the debate as it stands at the 
time. He should, in other words, review quickly and compare 
the arguments of the two sides. 

Refutation of Argument 
Brief 

1. Although it is said that national censorship would be un-American, 
undemocratic, and tyrannical, yet this argument is not sound, for 
A. It is no more un-American to have a small group of censors 
decide what pictures the public shall see than for the 
producers and National Board of Review to do the choosing. 


250 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


B. *The national and state governments already protect us 
with pure food laws, laws against sending indecency through 
the mails, drug laws, and health boards, which we do not 
consider undemocratic or tyrannical. 

Speech 

Somebody must decide what pictures are to be exhibited. William 
Sheafe Chase well says, ‘Tt is no more un-American to have a small 
group of censors decide what pictures the people shall see than it is to 
have a small group of producers do the choosing.” And censorship 
by a self-appointed board, who are paid by the moving-picture producers 
and naturally censor in their interest, is no more democratic than censor¬ 
ship by the representatives of the public, who have the welfare of the 
people at heart. We donT consider the federal pure food laws and 
laws preventing the sale of opium and other habit-forming drugs tyran¬ 
nical. Who calls tyrannical the law which makes it a crime to send 
indecency through the mails? Then why call tyrannical another law 
to prevent the poisoning of the minds of our people? Clinton Rogers 
Woodruff says in a bulletin of the Society for the Prevention of Crime, 
“To subject the general community (and every man and his family 
go to the movies) to the suggestiveness and indelicacies of the average 
motion picture is equivalent to subjecting them to an infection of a 
plague. We have a Board of Health to protect our communities from 
physical pestilence; let us have a Board of Moving-Picture Censors to 
protect us from moral pestilence.” 

Practice 12 

1. Refute a point in the brief in this chapter. 

2. Assume that some proof has been advanced by the negative 
on each of these sixteen points. Refute number one and seven 
others. 

(1) Moving pictures do not incite to criminality, for Hughes, Lloyd 
George, and other famous men read detective stories without emulating 
the criminals. 

(2) Masterpieces would be rejected by the censors. 

(3) The federal censors would be grafters. 

(4) As the stage, the book, the magazine, and the newspaper are 
unregulated, the censorship of the moving picture is an unjust dis¬ 
crimination. 


DEBATING 251 

(5) National censorship is a waste of the taxpayers’ money, because 
present laws are adequate. 

(6) No board can satisfactorily censor all pictures. 

(7) State censors have erred in their judgment of pictures. 

(8) Any congressional enactment involving the censorship of moving 
pictures would be unconstitutional. 

(9) The people themselves are the best censors. 

(10) Censorship is unnecessary, for the producers will eliminate 
objectionable films. 

(11) It is better to leave the censoring of films to the states and cities. 

(12) Federal censorship of films is a curtailment of liberty, is similar 
to a deprivation of the right of free speech. 

(13) National censorship would strangle the moving-picture industry. 

(14) Censorship deprives the people of the right to see pictures they 
would like to see. 

(15) Censorship contradicts one of the first principles of our govern¬ 
ment, which was founded on the basis of freedom of speech, the press, 
and the pulpit. 

(16) Parents must protect children from bad pictures. 

Example of negative speech and affirmative refutation: 

Resolved, That Congress should pass the Curtis-Reed Bill authorizing 
the establishment of a United States Department of Education with a 
Secretary in the President’s Cabinet. 

Second Negative ^ 

I shall discuss with you the undesirability of a federal department of 
education with a secretary in the President’s Cabinet. 

The affirmative has failed to tell us just why the many bills presented 
by the advocates of a department of education have not been approved. 

These bills were not passed because public opinion is strongly opposed 
to such a department. Congressmen feel sure that these bills do not have 
the support of the people. A congressman from Ohio recently said, '‘We 
will not vote for the Curtis-Reed Bill unless we know we are supported 
back home.” 

It is true that several national organizations have endorsed the Curtis- 
Reed Bill, but they do not represent public opinion. Concerning this, 
Miss Chari Williams, legislative secretary of the National Education 
Association, in an address at Seattle, said, “The endorsement of a bill 

1 This speech and the following refutation were delivered in a final debate for the 
annual championship of the high schools of the state of Virginia. 


252 


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by a local, state, or national organization, to my mind, simply gives to 
the members of that organization the right to go out in the name of that 
organization and begin to work for it.” 

A senator at Washington recently said, ‘‘I would rather have the frank 
expression of one of my constituent even though it be written on a scrap 
of wrapping paper than to have a long petition or a lot of printed form 
letters such as we senators have been receiving.” That public opinion is 
opposed to the Curtis-Reed Bill is shown by the fact that ninety-six 
newspapers selected at random from seventy-eight cities in thirty states 
and the District of Columbia have openly attacked the Curtis-Reed Bill. 

The first bills providing for a federal department of education openly 
advocated federal control of education by making large appropriations 
to the states, but the President of the United States and an aroused public 
opinion forced a modification of that scheme. 

But, honorable judges, the forces and organizations that now support 
the Curtis-Reed Bill are the very same people who advocated the Towner- 
Sterling Bill, which called for an annual appropriation of $100,000,000. 

While the supporters of the Curtis-Reed Bill insist that there will be 
no federal control under the provisions of the bill, yet the adoption of this 
bill will undoubtedly be an entering wedge leading to the federal domina¬ 
tion of our school system. 

Doctor Goodnow, president of Johns Hopkins University, supported 
this position when he said, ^^The Curtis-Reed Bill should be considered 
from the point of view of being an entering wedge inserted for the purpose 
of later securing large government appropriations with all that those 
appropriations imply.” Doctor Judson of the University of Chicago 
said, ‘‘I am strongly opposed to the pending educational bill. Can any 
one doubt that it is but an entering wedge?” 

The National Education Association, the strongest force behind the 
Curtis-Reed BiU, openly states that it intends to secure federal aid to 
education. Miss Williams, legislative secretary of the National Education 
Association, made this statement in^ recent convention address: ‘‘There 
is a general understanding among educators that federal aid will be de¬ 
ferred. Our bills in the last several sessions of Congress have been double¬ 
headed ones. We have decided that it is better to make progress in the 
one direction that is now open to us. It is inconceivable that the National 
Education Association will ever give up the idea of the extension of federal 
aid to the states.” Thus we know deWtely that if once a department is 
established, we shall have federal aid, which ultimately leads to federal 
control. 

Senator William E. Borah, in a speech delivered at Randolph-Macon 
Woman’s College, opposed the Curtis-Reed Bill when he said, “A federal 
department of education in a startlingly brief time will completely 
dominate your states in matters of education. The supporters of this 


DEBATING 


253 


bill will tell you that such is not its purpose, and in that they may be 
sincere; but they are uninformed as to the philosophy of the inevitable 
tendencies of centralization; of how this federalization is the creeping 
paralysis of our democracy; of how the Curtis-Reed Bill is but the be¬ 
ginning of an extremely doubtful and unknown policy.” 

The states must not surrender their birthright for a mess of federal 
pottage. We must not yield to the influences that are now working 
for the beginning of a program of centralization that would end in the 
destruction of the state and local individualism and responsibility in 
education. 

The statement that truth crushed to earth will rise again was never 
truer than when applied to the Curtis-Reed Bill. The framers of the 
Curtis-Reed Bill were pretty clever in covering up their insidious intents, 
but they were stupid in not covering up one of their tracks while driving 
this entering wedge. 

Honorable judges, the boards, bureaus, and institutions which this bill 
proposes to unite under a department now have an annual appropriation 
of about $36,000,000; yet this bill provides for an appropriation to the 
department of only $1,500,000 — about one twenty-fourth of what is now 
being used for the same purposes. Just how a department of education 
can function more efiiciently on one twenty-fourth of the money is a 
mathematical problem of the “N”th degree. 

The truth of the whole matter is that the $1,500,000 is only a bait. 
The department could well afford to starve today if it is promised a boun¬ 
teous feast of appropriations ever afterward. The first excuse for more 
money will be that the boards and bureaus under the department do not 
receive as much as they once had. Then, after the appropriations are 
once increased, goodness knows where they will end. 

The perpetuity of our system of government depends on ‘the balance 
of power between the state and nation. For one to assume undelegated 
power out of its own sphere would be a disastrous step. Doctor Penniman, 
president of the University of Pennsylvania, saw that danger when he 
said, am absolutely opposed to the creation of a federal department of 
education. I am opposed to loading the federal government with powers 
that are properly those of the states. It is neither necessary nor desirable 
that the educational programs of the several states be uniform.” Also, 
Doctor Lowell, president of Harvard University, said, ‘T am strongly 
opposed to the creation of a federal secretary of education because such 
an action is sure to mean a certain bureaucratic uniformity, whereas it 
seems to me that we need in this country a wide diversity of educational 
experimentations, ” 

Many school problems are distinctly local and can never be solved by 
a nationally standardized prescription. The negative contends that the 
educational leaders of Virginia are better acquainted with the needs and 


254 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


are better able to solve the problems of education in this state than is any 
set of so-called educational experts in our national capital. 

The establishment of a department of education is objectionable in 
that if a secretary is placed in the President’s Cabinet, education will be 
thrown into the arena of national politics to be juggled by the victors. 
It is too often the case that incapable men are placed in the cabinet as a 
result of some political favor rather than for personal qualifications. The 
appointment of the head of a department of education would be purely a 
political one, subject to the wishes of the party bosses. 

A secretary in the cabinet would lead to a constant change of office and 
of educational policies. The average term of a cabinet officer is only two 
and two-thirds years, while the average term of the head of the present 
Bureau of Education has been over eight years. A secretary of education 
would be subject, to bitter partisan opposition, to jealous professional 
criticism, and to legislative interference to such an extent that he would 
be unable to promote the interests of education on a scientific, professional 
basis. 

In conclusion, honorable judges, we have shown you — 

1. That there is no reasonable need for a department of education, as 
the problems of education under state control are being solved in a satis¬ 
factory manner. 

2. That since the Bureau of Education is now doing scientific research 
and disseminating results of expert investigations in the various phases 
of education, it would, with sufficient funds, be capable of performing all 
the functions of the proposed department. 

3. That should there be sufficient demand for more research in educa¬ 
tion, or need for the consolidation of the federal educational activities, it 
would be desirable to enlarge the present bureau, thus accomplishing all 
of the possible advantages of the Curtis-Reed Bill, while many of the 
objectionable features connected with the establishment of a department 
would be avoided. 

4. That public opinion is opposed to the Curtis-Reed Bill. 

5. That the Curtis-Reed Bill is an entering wedge leading to federal 
control. 

6. The Curtis-Reed Bill would place education at the mercy of un¬ 
scrupulous politicians to the extent that it would not be possible to pro¬ 
mote the interests of American education on a scientific, professional, 
progressive basis. 

It is for these reasons, ladies and gentlemen, that we of the negative 
oppose the bill advocated by the affirmative.— Willard H. White, 
E. C. Glass High School, Lynchburg, Virginia 


DEBATING 


255 


Second Affirmative Refutation 

Honorable judges, I shall continue to “hammer away” on federal con¬ 
trol and federal aid because these two issues seem to form the basis of the 
opposition. 


Federal Control 

Federal control will not result from the passage of the Curtis-Reed Bill. 
The federal Constitution provides that all those powers not specifically 
granted to the federal government are reserved to state and local govern¬ 
ments. Hence the federal Constitution preserves state and local control 
of education. The Curtis-Reed Bill does the same because the Curtis- 
Reed BiU abides specifically by the Constitution. Before federal control 
of education could result from the passage of the Curtis-Reed Bill, the 
Constitution of the United States would have to be amended. 

In the second place, a department of education does not seek control of 
education but control of facts regarding education. We are developing 
a science of education, in which, as in all other sciences, facts control the 
situation. It is quite impossible for individuals to control the situation 
in opposition to facts. The natural sciences, like the science of engineer¬ 
ing, have not enslaved men by their discoveries and control of facts. 
They have liberated men, and we now fly and communicate with one an¬ 
other in ways that were unknown and unheard of before men had control 
of facts. 

Federal control of education will not result; hence standardization will 
not result. The Curtis-Reed Bill moreover guards against it, because the 
Curtis-Reed Bill promotes seeking facts for the individual. 

President Coolidge is not inconsistent in his views, as some would have 
us believe. He disapproves and heartily opposes control and centraliza¬ 
tion of education, but he just as heartily approves and endorses the Curtis- 
Reed Bill. Why? Because he realizes that federal control will not result 
from the passage of the Curtis-Reed Bill. 


Federal Aid 

The Curtis-Reed Bill and federal aid are two distinct issues. The 
Curtis-Reed Bill does not deal with the problem of federal aid. It pro¬ 
vides for no state appropriations or fifty-fifty subsidies. It simply asks 
for the modest sum of $1,500,000 to pay salaries and carry on investiga¬ 
tion. The modified bill removes the objections advanced against former 
bills. If, after the passage of the bill and the establishment of a depart¬ 
ment of education, it is discovered, through investigation and research, 
that further federal support of states is needed, then the matter will rest in 


256 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


the hands of Congress and the people. The responsibility for granting 
further federal support will rest with the legislative branch. 

Dr. C. R. Mann, director of the American Council on Education and an 
advocate of the bill, states that he opposes federal aid on the grounds 
that it is a means for weakening the seK-reliance and self-governing powers 
of the states. He also opposes it on constitutional grounds. He adds 
that he favors the Curtis-Reed Bill because it omits the objectionable 
feature of federal aid. 

Another reason why the new educational bill does not deal with the 
problem of federal aid is that the taxing situation has greatly changed for 
the better since the previous measures were drawn during the critical 
period of war finance. 

Federal aid is a matter for future legislation. Stick, therefore, to the 
present bill. We are discussing this bill and not future possi-bil-ities. 

In fighting federal aid in .the present bill we are simply Don Quixotes 
fighting windmills, mere creatures of imagination. 

Surely no fair-minded person can object to the establishment of a 
federal department of education whose function is to record valuable facts 
available alike to those who favor federal aid and to those who are opposed 
to it. 

The best answer to the question of political domination of education is 
the fact that the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor have 
been as free from political control, domination, and influence as the Bureau 
of Education itself. The change of secretaries has not seriously affected 
the scientific and technical work of these departments. Then, too, our 
political morals are improving each year, and there is no reason to doubt 
that if citizenship is effectively taught in the schools, the problem of mis¬ 
use of political power will diminish rapidly.— Jane Love Little, 
Suffolk, Virginia, High School 


Decision 

In intercollegiate debates the no-decision contest, which em¬ 
phasizes the fact that the purpose of debate is to find the truth, 
not to win a victory, is growing in favor. Years ago regularly 
three judges, who either met and discussed the arguments at the 
close of the debate or voted without such discussion, decided the 
debate. This system is still used. Sometimes, however, a critic 
judge, a person who understands argument, takes the place of 
the three judges, and in some debates the audience vote. In class 
debates each judge may be called upon to explain in a minute 
or two why he voted for the affirmative or for the negative. 


DEBATING 


257 


How to Debate 

1. With your colleagues decide upon the issues and a division of 
points to he proved. 

2 . Study both sides of the question. 

3. Set down every argument that your opponents might use. 
Classify your rebuttal material under these heads. Use library 
cards. 

4. DonH overrate or underrate your opponents. Give them credit 
for as much sense and cleverness as you possess, and decide to 
win by wide reading, logical planning, and convincing delivery. 
The inspiration of the moment usually comes to the best-prepared 
speaker. 

5. Explain clearly at the beginning of a debate. A case well 
explained is half won. 

6 . In the introduction convince the audience that the issues your 
side has selected are the fundamental considerations upon which a 
decision of the question rests. 

7 . Repeat the issues during the debate and summarize at the end 
so clearly that every one in the audience must understand and re¬ 
member upon what points you base your case. 

8 . When you pass from one topic to anotherj make the transition 
clear to the audience. 

9 . Arrange your arguments so that the weakest come in the middle 
and the strongest last. 

10 . Don’t weary the audience with sets of statistics which mean 
little or nothing to them. Make facts take hold by applying or illus¬ 
trating them. 

11 . Remember that assertion is not proof. 

12 . Don’t be smart or discourteous. 

13. Debate is a method of arriving at the truth^ not of tricking your 
opponents and deceiving the judges. Play fair. DonT exaggerate. 
Admit that there is truth on your opponents^ side. 

14. Don’t memorize your speech. Be ready to change your attack 
if your opponents present an entirely unexpected case. 

15. Speak clearly and forcefully. Don’t rant or declaim. 


258 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Practice 13 

Prepare for a series of classroom debates on questions selected 
from the following list or on other questions. Present proof; 
don’t merely assert. 


SCHOOL QUESTIONS FOR DEBATE 

1. Pupils should receive school credit for participation in athletics. 

2. Ability to swim should be made a requirement for graduation from 
our high school. 

3. High-school fraternities should be abolished (or permitted). 

4. The state should pay the college tuition of all high-school graduates. 

5. The honor system in examinations should be introduced into our 
school. 

6. A system of student self-government should be established in 
our school. 

7. At least one year of Latin should be required of every pupil in 
the general course. 

8. Pupils who attain a class average of eighty per cent should be 
exempt from all examinations. 

9. High-school examinations should be abolished (or reestablished). 

10. High-school football should be abolished. 

11. In the study of fiction high-school pupils should spend the most 
time on living and recent writers. 

12. The English course should include the reading and study of the 
best magazines. 

13. Members of athletic teams should be required to maintain an 
average of seventy-five per cent in at least fifteen periods of prepared 
work. 

14. In the larger cities separate high schools should be provided 
for boys and for girls. 

15. Intramural athletics should be substituted for interscholastic 
athletics. 

16. Athletics improve the scholarship of high-school students. 

17. The regulation of the conduct of pupils in study halls, lunch¬ 
rooms, and corridors should be in the hands of the pupils. 

18. A pupil who fails in any subject should be debarred from all 
extra-curricular activities. 

19. Every pupil should be required to take part in one extra-curricular 
activity. 

20. Our school should publish a weekly newspaper. 


DEBATING 


259 


CITY, STATE, AND UNITED STATES QUESTIONS 

1. The United States Government should own and operate the rail¬ 
roads. 

2. The city should own and operate all street railways. 

3. The city should own and operate its electric-light plant. 

4. Oath-bound secret societies are detrimental to the welfare of the 
United States. 

5. The Labor Board should be given full power to enforce its decisions 
as to wages and working conditions. 

6. Compulsory arbitration boards should be established by the 
United States to settle all disputes between employers and wage-earners. 

7. The United States should within two years grant Philippine inde¬ 
pendence. 

8. Our city should adopt the commission form of government. 

9. If a man’s estate exceeds one million dollars, the excess should' , 
belong to the state. 

10. The United States should abandon the Monroe Doctrine. 

11. In this state a unanimous verdict should no longer be required 
in jury trials. 

12. In labor disputes the boycott is justifiable. 

13. The present immigration law is detrimental to the national 
welfare. 

14. The closed shop should be prohibited by law. 

15. The presidential candidates should be nominated directly by the 
people voting at a primary election. 

16. The president should be elected by direct vote of the people. 

17. The Senate should be abolished. 

18. Asiatics should be admitted to United States citizenship. 

19. Direct primaries should be abolished (or established) in this 
state. 

20. The Constitution should be further amended to prevent the 
raising, preparation, and sale of tobacco. 

21. State law should provide for the recall of municipal and state 
officials. 

22. The initiative and the referendum should be instituted (or abol¬ 
ished) in this state. 

23. The United States should enter the World Court. 

24. A national system of public labor exchanges should be established. 

25. In times of industrial depression municipalities should give work 
to the unemployed. 

26. The United States should adopt the daylight-saving plan as a 
permanent arrangement. 

27. The Eighteenth Amendment should be repealed. 


260 ENGLISH IN ACTION 

28. The motion-picture houses of this city should be open (or closed) 
on Sunday. 

29. The United States should adopt a policy of laissez faire towards 
the governments of the West Indies, Central America, and South America. 

30. The United States should join the League of Nations. 

31. The United States should cease to protect by armed force, except 
after a formal declaration of war, capital invested in foreign countries. 

32. Child labor should be prohibited by constitutional amendment. 

33. An automobile owner should be required to carry liability insur¬ 
ance. 

34. Foreign nations should relinquish all government control in 
China except that usually exercised over consulates and legations. 

35. In the interests of the country a conservative and a liberal party 
should supersede the present Republican and Democratic parties. 

36. An amendment to the Constitution providing for uniform national 
marriage and divorce laws should be adopted. 

37. A system of compulsory voting should be adopted throughout the 
United States. 

38. The five-day week should be adopted in American industries. 

39. The United States should adopt a cabinet form of government 
similar to that of England. 

40. The installment plan of buying should be curtailed. 

41. Prize fighting should be prohibited by law. 

42. The United States should cancel loans made to the allied powers 
during the World War. 

43. Illiterate voters should be disfranchised. 

44. Trade unions as they now exist are, on the whole, beneficial to 
the people of the United States. 

45. Farm life is preferable to city life. 

46. The United States should own and operate the coal mines of 
the country. 

47. The president’s cabinet should include a secretary of education. 

48. The right of unlimited debate in the United States Senate should 
be curtailed. 

49. The Federal Government should grant financial aid to ships 
engaged in our foreign trade and owned by citizens of the United States. 

50. The theater, in its character and influence, as shown by the past 
and the present, is more evil than good. 


CHAPTER XIII 


PUBLICATION 

NEWSPAPER 


The best and most enjoyable way to learn to write is by writing 
for publication. 


News 


News is an account of happenings of interest to a large number 
of people. Dana of the New York Sun once said, ‘‘When a dog 
bites a man, that is not news; but when a man bites a dog, that 
is news.^^ No reporter notices a thousand well-behaved Fords 
jogging along on the bank of a river; but when one crashes into a 
Lincoln and both cars go down over an embankment into the 
river, the cars, the people, the bank, and the river have been 
raised from the everyday to the unusual. The reporter who knows 
news when he hears it and can get the piece of news he goes after 
and perhaps pick up an item he didn’t expect is said to have “a 
nose for news.” 

Contents 


A typical newspaper has news columns, advertisements, de¬ 
partments, special features, and an editorial page, on which may 
be printed letters from readers. Departments found in many 
papers are sports, finance, society, art, music, drama, moving 
pictures, shipping, schools, fiterature, crops, police and fire, army 
and navy, real estate, business, markets. Special features in some 
newspapers are cartoons, a humor column, poetry, short stories, 
chapters of a novel or other book, illustrations, and signed articles 
by specialists or popular writers. 


Make-up 

No one reads a newspaper from first page to last, as he reads a 
novel. Perhaps the reader scans the domestic and foreign news 

261 


262 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


on the front page, then turns to the editorial page, and studies 
next the football situation as outlined on the sporting page. 
Hence the newspaper must be so arranged that each reader can 
find what he looks for. 

Because the last column of the first page attracts the eye when 
the paper fies on the news stand and because this column con¬ 
tinues naturally to the second page, the lead story, which tells the 
most important news of the day, occupies this place. The editor 
makes up first the editorial page, then fits the advertisements 
into the space contracted for, puts commonly on pages 2 and 3 
less important local and foreign news, arranges the other depart¬ 
ments and special articles, and last of all fills the front page with 
the latest and most important news. Newspapers vary in ar¬ 
rangement. On the last page, which is, unless the paper is in two 
or more sections, next in value to the front page, one newspaper has 
a humorous article, two cartoons, an editorial, a humorous poem, 
and an advertisement; another, humorous and human-interest 
stories and display advertisements; a third, attractive news 
stories and display and classified advertisements. Some news¬ 
papers print an index to guide the reader to the departments in 
which he is interested. 


Pkactice 1 

Compare two or more newspapers as to contents and make-up. How 
much local, general, and foreign news is there in each? How is this news 
arranged? Which paper seems more accurate? What news is empha¬ 
sized in each? Which gives more space to divorces, murders, and other 
crimes, scandals, and sensations? What departments and special features 
has each? Which of these are conspicuously placed or given much space? 


News Story 

News story is a general term covering practically all the material 
in a newspaper except editorials, special articles, and advertise¬ 
ments. An outstanding difference between a news story and an 
editorial is that the story is news without the reporter’s opinion 


PUBLICATION 


263 


about it or comment on it, whereas the editorial is largely opinion, 
comment, or discussion. A news item is a clear, accurate, terse 
statement of bare facts. A feature or human-interest story is a 
news story in which elements other than the news value are 
played up strongly. Because the chief purpose of the feature story 
is to entertain, the reporter plays on the emotions with a humorous 
or pathetic account of animals, children, the old, the destitute, or 
the heroic. 

Example of news item: 

WASHINGTON, July 11.—(AP)—Corn 
production in Kansas as indicated by the 
condition July 1 will be 134,460,000 bushels, 
the Department of Agriculture announced 
today. 

The condition of the crop was placed 
at 80 per cent compared with 81 per cent, 
the 10-year July 1 average. Acreage was 
placed at 6,723,000, or 114 per cent of the 
1927 acreage .—Detroit News 


News story: 

Iowa Boys* Steers Win Honor 
At Show; One Brings $8000 


CHICAGO, Dec. 6 (AP)— Two 
farm boys from the same county in 
Iowa today shared the highest honors at 
the International Live Stock Exposi¬ 
tion. 

Clarence Goecke, 12, of State Centre, 
made the old-time cattle experts sit 
back and wonder as his grand champion 
steer of the show went off the auction 
block for more than $8,000, at $7 per 
pound, more than doubling the previous 
high price for “kings-of-the-steers,” 
while Keith Collins, 15, of Liscomb won 
first prize in the carcass class. 

One represented the pinnacle of suc¬ 
cess in steers on the hoof and the other 
the apex of animals slaughtered. 


Veteran exhibitors at the exposition 
considered it remarkable not only that 
two lads should be elevated to the top¬ 
most honors of the exposition, but also 
that both should be club boy neighbors 
from the same county, which is 
Marshall. 

Other prize money brought Goecke’s 
total to more than $9,000. Collins’s 
champion steer carcass is yet to be 
sold, but it also will likely yield a 
record price. Each boy also has two 
more steers to be disposed of, and 
stock men are looking forward to 
additional surprises when these animals 
go on the market. 

Goecke’s animal is a Hereford 








264 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 



Times Wide World 

Beep at Seven Dollars a Pound 
Dick, the world’s champion steer, and his sponsor, Clarence Goecke. 


yearling and was purchased by the 
J. C. Penney Company of New York. 
The previous high price, paid in 1926, 
was $3 a pound. 

The youthful owner saw his pet, 
which he had raised from a calf, 
auctioned off with a solemn face de¬ 
spite the fact that the price paid meant 
he would receive more than $8,000. 
The awarding of the grand champion¬ 
ship automatically seals the doom of 
the recipient, which, according to 
custom, is auctioned off and butchered 
at the stock yards. 

The steer which the Iowa lad brought 
to the show carried off honors at the 
Iowa State Fair, after which the boy’s 


father wanted to sell it when he got an 
offer of $1 a pound. 

The boy demurred, however, and 
insisted on bringing the animal to 
Chicago, where it took about all the 
ribbons that could be fastened on its 
glossy hide, including the junior feed¬ 
ing championship, the prize for the 
best Hereford yearling, and the grand 
prize for the best yearling. 

Clarence was satisfied with this 
showing and prepared to go home with 
his steer, which he calls “Dick,” when 
some one prevailed on him to enter it 
in the Grand Championship contest. 
When entered, the animal weighed 
1,150 pounds .—New York Times 







PUBLICATION 


265 


Feature Stories: 

ON LOCKERBIE STREET 

“Your songs like dews upon the grass 
Have brought a miracle to pass, 

To stud our lives with gems of thought; 
We love you for the songs you brought.” 

Each year the business section creeps 
a little closer to it. Tall smoke stacks 
spring up to pour sooty fog around it 
morning and night. The city hurries 
by practically oblivious to its presence. 
Its brick walls have taken on a mellowed 
warm tone with the passage of years, 
but someone keeps the stone trimmings 
white, and the grass miraculously grows 
green despite the “smog.” Just ask any 
school child, around October seventh, 
and hear his proud answer, “Sure, I 
know where that is! On Lockerbie 
Street!” 

No doubt many Techites will re¬ 
member visiting the Hoosier poet’s 
home. Can you remember the high- 
cehinged rooms displaying in their dimly 
lighted interiors intimate possessions 
of James Whitcomb Riley? Books he 
loved, his big chair, pictures of the 
children of the neighborhood—these 


and other things made us believe that 
Riley could have written our favorite 
childhood rhymes. 

But Techites who are now superior 
upperclassmen may dislike admitting 
that they once thrilled to “The Bear 
Story” or sang “Little Orphan Annie” 
with sixty-grade fervor. Do they know 
that the selfsame Riley wrote splendid 
short stories which would hold their 
interest now as “The Raggedy Man”' 
once did? Have they read Riley’s 
fairy fantasy “Flying Islands of the 
Night,” which is a source of joy to all 
poetically inclined? The writings of 
the Hoosier poet appeal to all ages. 

Lockerbie Street is within walking 

distance of Tech. Why not “-go 

loitering in 

Through the dim narrow walks, with 
the sheltering shade 
Of the trees waving over the promenade 
And littering the ways of our feet 
With gold of the sunshine of Lockerbie 
Street.”? 

—The Arsenal Cannon, 

Indianapolis, Indiana 


French And English Students Correspond 

From Different Sides Of Atlantic Ocean 


“All ye who are letter-writers, gather 
near; 

If you want a French friend, come over 
here. 

We’ll supply you with addresses in gay 
Paree, 

They’ll be glad to answer, you will 
soon see.” 

So, in effect, says the National Bu¬ 
reau of Educational correspondence of 
the George Peabody College for Teach¬ 
ers, in Nashville, Tennessee. Miss 
Helen Matlock took advantage of the 
opportunity, and, since it would be im¬ 
possible for her Latin classes to corre¬ 
spond with the ancient Romans, she 
had to be content with providing the 
French class with correspondents. For 
one dime sent to the above-mentioned 


college, a name and address is given, 
with the stipulation that French girls 
may not write to American boys. Per¬ 
haps the French have become alarmed 
at the stories of the “flaming youth” 
in America. At any rate, they must 
confine their correspondence in “Les 
Etats-Unis” to members of their own 
sex. 

Use Both Languages 

The college was as good as its word, 
and all but four of the thirteen in the 
class have received answers to their 
letters. Some of the class wrote in Eng¬ 
lish, some in French, and some used 
both. The answers were received in 
the same varied forms. Marian Naden 
has had letters from Alice Pautassi, with 










266 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


a picture included. Alice uses a queer 
combination of English and French, 
which though sometimes amusing, is 
easy to translate. Alice spoke of her 
work in a choir, and said that the music 
is difficult, “but I sing good.” 

The boys to whom Dick Haydon 
and Brit Newbold write live in Algiers, 
North Africa, which is a French colony. 
In the letter which Dick received last 
week, from Maurice Blachere, he was 
^told about Algiers, and Maurice said 
that he goes to France every summer. 

Average Two Years Of English 

The French students are all of high 
school age, and most of them have 


been studying English for two years. 
One girl said that she had studied Eng¬ 
lish “for years,” and “I am fifty years 
old.” For some unknown reason, the 
French seem to have a preference for 
blue stationery, because every letter 
which has come is on blue paper. Most 
of the correspondents conscientiously 
rule their paper, sometimes both at the 
top and bottom of the letters. 

They seem as eager to write to Ameri¬ 
cans as we are to write to them, and 
they must find our efforts as full of 
amusing blunders as we have found 
theirs. 

—The Rushlite, 

Bushville, Indiana 


Practice 2 

1. Compare the preceding news stories as to purpose, style, and 
effectiveness. 

2. Does the news story cited above have any of the elements of a 
feature story in it? Rewrite the story and change it into a feature 
story. 

3. Write such a news story concerning Lockerbie Street as might have 
been written during James Whitcomb Riley’s lifetime. 

4. Compare the two preceding feature stories as to purpose and 
appeal to the emotions. 

5. Show that news items are sometimes impaired in value because 
they are colored by material more appropriate to editorials or feature 
stories. 

6. Clip from newspapers and bring to class two news items, two 
feature stories, and four other news stories. Which of the eight is most 
entertaining? Which is most concise? Which tells the most important 
news? 

Headlines 

Although the headline is the last part of a news story to be 
written, it is especially important, because it both attracts atten¬ 
tion to the article, or advertises the news, and tells the story 
briefly. Headlines save the time of the reader by giving him the 
news tersely worded and guiding him to the news stories in which 
he is particularly interested. Example 1 on page 268 is a decked 
headline; 2 and 3 are single headlines. 






PUBLICATION 


267 


In writing headlines— 

1. First select the head and know how many letters and spaces 
each line will hold. Type is made of metal, which can’t be com¬ 
pressed or stretched. Every letter except M, W, and I is a unit. 
M and W count l}/ 2 ] the letter I and the figure 1, 3^. (?), (—), 
and ”) count 1; any other punctuation mark, Spaces 
between words count 1 each. The first line of head 1 contains 
16 units; the second, 16 units. Pyramids like the following are 
sometimes counted by words instead of units and may vary slightly 
in length. 


Youth in Top Hat and Cut¬ 
away Coat Works Passage 
On Munson Liner 


2. The present tense of a verb is either expressed or understood 
in each deck. Prefer the active voice. 

3. Omit all articles and unnecessary prepositions, conjunctions, 
and auxiliaries. 

4. Avoid blind headlines like Big Calamity, Great Excitement, 
and Wonderful Discovery, which carry no news. Give a bird’s-eye 
view of the story. Include the feature. 

5. Avoid negatives, abbreviations, lengthy words, repetition 
of words, and incorrect omissions. Write clear, graphic sen¬ 
tences. 

6. Each deck should be closely connected with the preceding 
deck and add something to it. 

In especially conservative newspapers a headline never extends 
beyond one column; in most newspapers it may cover two, three, 
or four columns or the entire front page. The “yellow” journals 
print across the front page, sometimes in red or green ink, scare- 
heads in large type. 




268 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


1. Important News: 

TWO SHIPS BATTLE 
GALES OFF ALASKA 


Freezing Weather Adds to 
Hardship of 39 Seamen 


2. Less Important News: 

Fireman Injured 
in Practice Climb 

3. Feature Story: 

New Rockefeller Fund Gives 

Charities Quarter Million 


Practice 3 

1. How many units are there in each line of the three preceding head¬ 
lines? 

2. Bring to class two newspapers. Compare the headlines. Are head¬ 
lines in adjoining columns placed together? Are two heads of the same 
kind near each other? Is the front page balanced, or symmetrical? Is 
the lower hah of the front page attractive? Which front page is a more 
pleasing picture? Why? 

Examples of Headlines: 

Steel Mill Trip Is 
Feature of Hi-Y 

F. C. Smith, Chief Metallurgist of 
Harvester Company, Conducts 
Group Upon Tour. 













PUBLICATION 


269 


Music Department 

To Present Operetta 
February 19 and 20 

Glee Clubs Unite to Offer 
“Robin Hood,” Famous 
Play, at Harrison Hill. 

Locker, Thompson 

Have Lead Roles 

Art, Manual Training Depts. 
Furnish Scenery, Shields, 
Weapons, Costumes, Hats. 


More Added 
to Faculty 
Every Year 

Teaching Corps Has Grown 
From 41 in 1922 to 69 
In 1932; Changes Yearly. 

24 of Original” 

Teachers Here Yet 

From: 

turtle 

Fort Wayne, Indiana 

Lead 

The lead of an ordinary news story is a brief introductory para¬ 
graph which gives in concise language the gist of the following 
story, indicates what is to be featured, and usually answers the 
questions, ^‘Who?" "What?’’ "When?” "Where?” "Why?” 
"How?” Kipling says, ® 

1 1930-31—N. S. P. A.: All American; C.S. P. A.: First Place Rating. First 
Place Rating: State Fair; First in Indiana. 


Yearbook Has 

Been Awarded 
Many Trophies 

Fifteen Editors Guided To¬ 
tem Through Ten Years; 
Nearly 20 Prizes Won. 

AH Editors Save 

One, Were Boys 

Business Managers, Editors, 
i And Co-editors Have Been 
Heads at Various Times. 


Volley hall Men 

Change System 
To Elimination 

Teams Will Adopt New 
Form of Competition; 
Schedule Will Be Posted. 

Wrestlers To Stage 

Annual Tourney 





















270 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


I keep six honest serving men 
(They taught me all I know); 

Their names are What, and Wliy, and When, 

And How, and Where, and Who. 

There are two kinds of leads, the summarizing and the informal. 
The informal lead, used in feature stories, is like the beginning of 
a short story in that its purpose is to arouse curiosity. 

Examples of the informal lead: 


1 

Six Colgate University students are 
sleeping their way through college, but no 
member of the faculty objects because it’s 
all in the interest of science. 

2 

You never heard of “Samuel Albert”? 

Then you don’t live in Norristown, where, 
both figuratively and literally, he is causing 
a great uproar. 

A summarizing lead is the news story boiled down, or the news 
story in a nutshell. The reporter first decides whether he should 
feature the who, when, where, what, why, or how and thinks how to 
emphasize this important fact. Usually he starts the sentence 
with the feature. 


Examples: 


1 

Although in a side show himself, the 
attractions of Coney Island (where) proved 
too fascinating (why) yesterday afternoon 
(when) to an eight-foot boa constrictor 
(who), which slithered (how) out of a glass 
cage in the Strand Museum (what), Surf 
Avenue and Twelfth Street (more where), 
and has not been heard from since (more 
what). " 

2 

Robert Dobson, 16 years old (who), 
gave up his life (what) early today (when) 
when he rushed back into his burning home 
(how and where) to rescue his 72-year-old 
grandfather (why), who already had been 
taken from the place uninjured (more what). 






PUBLICATION 


271 


Practice 4 

1. Which of the six questions does each of the following leads answer? 

2. With what grammatical element does each lead begin? In what 
other ways may the lead begin? Clip and bring to class illustrations. 

3. Examples 3 and 4 represent two types of leads. What is to be 
featured in each story? 

4. Clip two good informal leads and six good summarizing leads. 
What questions does each summarizing lead answer? With what gram¬ 
matical element does each begin? 

5. Write the leads for three news stories of school, town, or city 
happenings. Underscore the words that indicate what is to be featured 
in the story. Which of the six questions does each lead answer? 


1 

PARIS, Dec. 28. — Possibly as a con¬ 
cession to French susceptibilities the Bel¬ 
gians have decided to alter the name of 
Waterloo. Henceforth the hamlet which 
gave the name to the immortal battle will 
be known as Loncin. 

2 

That the present situation in college 
athletics is filled with dangers that threaten 
not only the welfare, but the future exist¬ 
ence, of college sports was the warning 
note sounded by Dr. G. L. Meylan of 
Columbia University before the Society of 
Directors of Physical Education in Colleges, 
who held their twenty-fifth annual meeting 
at the Hotel Astor yesterday. Dr. Meylan’s 
remarks were made in the course of his 
address on “The Place of Intercollegiate 
Athletics in a Physical Education Program,” 
which was one of the features of the morning 
session. 

3 

Clinging to the side of a careening taxi¬ 
cab and sending shot after shot at another 
taxicab in flight, a policeman seeking to 
catch three bandits who a moment before 
had held up the Horn & Hardart Automat 
restaurant at 1447 Broadway, within a 
block of Times Square, brought hundreds 
of persons to the curb early this morning 
to witness a stirring chase. 




272 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


4 

Oberlin College extends to South Side’s 
junior and senior students and teachers an 
invitation to attend the fourth annual high 
school day on Saturday, October 15. This 
invitation was sent to R. Nelson Snider from 
W. H. Seaman, director of admission of 
Oberlin College. 


Arrangement of a News Story 

A newspaper account tells the story two or three times and has 
the point or climax at the beginning. The headlines give the most 
important facts; the lead tells the story briefly; the remaining 
paragraphs give details, often in time order. This arrangement, 
which makes the article resemble an upside-down pyramid, makes 
it possible for the reader in a half-hour to get a maximum of news 
from the paper by scanning the headlines and reading many leads 
and several stories. Another reason for the arrangement is that 
later news or limited space frequently makes necessary the cutting 
of articles. Hence the reporter or editor writes up the happening 
in such a way that cutting off the last paragraphs will not make 
the story seem unfinished. 


Paragraphs 

The newspaper paragraph, which varies in length from fifty to 
a hundred words, is substantially shorter than the magazine or 
composition paragraph, in which an average of one hundred fifty 
words is common. The average newspaper paragraph is between 
sixty and seventy-five words long. Because the article may be cut 
at any point, paragraphs are not closely joined. Each paragraph, 
however, should be rigidly unified. The emphatic position in 
the paragraph, as in the entire news story, is the beginning. 

Sentences 

The sentences should be clear, terse, unified, and varied in 
length and structure. Have clearly in mind what you wish to 
say, and make your point clear to the man on the street. DonT 




PUBLICATION 


273 


change the subject or the voice of the verb needlessly. When 
possible, use the active voice. Mix long and short sentences. 
Avoid the excessive use of the compound sentence; frequently 
subordinate one of the ideas and make the sentence complex. 
After completing the news story, see whether you can cross out 
at least one useless word in each sentence. The first words of the 
sentences should be attractive and vigorous enough to entice 
busy men and women to read farther in the story. 

Words 

An inflated, roundabout style is sometimes called journalese,’^ 
because many country editors and some city reporters seem unable 
or unwilling to call a thing by its name and to tell the news in 
simple, pointed English. In ^‘journalese” people do not live in 
houses, they “reside in residences”; fires are not put out, but 
“conflagrations are extinguished”; the law does not hang rogues, 
but it “launches into eternity the victims of unbridled passions”; 
people do not send for the doctor, but “call into requisition the 
services of the family physician”; they do not die, but “the spirit 
wings its flight into eternity”; a man does not breakfast, but he 
“discusses the morning repast”; he does not go to bed, but “re¬ 
tires to his downy couch”; he does not go to church, but “attends 
divine service”; women are not married, but “led to the hymeneal 
altar.” In “journalese” all sparrows attempt to soar and sing 
like skylarks or to squawk like eagles. 

Shun shop-worn, overworked words like fine, nice, wonderful, 
factor, and according to. Search out vigorous, exact, concrete 
words. Strike out building and animal and write in thirty-story 
Gothic skyscraper, tiny green-and-white bungalow, sleek Maltese 
cat, or dirty rat terrier. 

Practice 5 

Translate the ^^journalese” into simple, accurate, straightfor¬ 
ward English: 

1. They were eagerly hastening towards their parental domicile. 

2. After doing the “light fantastic” act for two hours, they retired to 
an adjoining apartment to partake of some liquid refreshments. 


274 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


3. After being the recipients of numerous favors and participating 
for some weeks in the hospitalities of their host, they took their departure. 

4. Before she was led to the hymeneal altar, she had charge of the 
culinary department of a prominent hotel. 

5. Harvard’s football gladiators will do battle this afternoon with 
Yale’s army of pigskin chasers. 

6. The blushing bride was handsomely attired in a creation of white 
Spanish lace made over georgette. 

7. The ornate decorations were wonderful and reflected to the full 
the remarkable ingenuity of the Senior Class. 

Practice 6 

1. Write for the local paper an account of a school, community, 
town, city, state, or national happening. Get all the facts before 
you begin to write. Don’t distort the truth or give your opinion. 
Direct quotations are more vivid than indirect. 

2. Prepare to speak or write on 1, on 2 or 3, and on one other 
topic: 

1. My favorite newspaper, and why I prefer it. 2. Comparison of 
two newspapers: arrangement, domestic news, foreign news, business, 
sports, drama, headlines, English, illustrations, editorials, special fea¬ 
tures, advertisements, class of readers, fairness, accuracy. 3. A visit 
to a newspaper office. 4. The morgue. 5. The linotype machine. 6. 
The stereotyping process. 7. The printing press. 8. Editorial rooms. 
9. The business department. 10. Editing copy. 11. The cost of news¬ 
paper publication and of advertising in a newspaper. 12. Influence of 
the American newspaper. 13. The Associated Press. 14. Why read the 
daily paper? 15. How to read the newspaper. 16. Why read the 
sporting page? 17. How news is gathered. 18. Newspaper campaigns. 
19. Should newspapers publish full accounts of crimes? 

Editorial 

Arthur Brisbane says, ‘^An editorial can do four important 
things: teach, attack, defend, praise.” He adds that teaching is 
the most important, attacking is the easiest, and defending and 
praise are often neglected. As the editor aims to guide public 
opinion by a skillful use of persuasion, the writer must put himself 
in the place of the reader and look at the issue from his angle. 


PUBLICATION 


275 


In tone, editorials vary from the serious or impassioned to the 
humorous, whimsical, or lightly satirical. Like Addison and Steele, 
who believed that they could effect reforms by making vice ridicu¬ 
lous, many editorial writers use humor and good-natured banter 
to achieve their purposes. The editorial writer should always be 
courteous, fair, and fearless. 

Athletes in the Life Table 

When the college athlete declares that he 
would die for his alma mater he is uttering 
no mere figure of speech. A three-year 
study conducted by a group of medical and 
athletic associations with the aid of the 
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company 
shows that the college alumnus who was 
an athlete during his student days has a 
shorter life expectancy than his classmates; 
moreover, the honor student, whose physical 
activities are generally far removed from 
the playing field, is shown to have the 
greatest longevity prospect of his class. 

These findings are based on the life his¬ 
tories of approximately 50,000 college men 
who were graduated in classes of 1870 to 
1905. The athletes made a good showing 
in only one division—the classes of 1900 
to 1905. Here they had a lower mortality 
rate than their fellows as a whole, but a 
higher one than honor students of corre¬ 
sponding age. 

As the inquiry went further back the 
mortality rate of the athletes increased. 

This was especially apparent after they 
reached the age of 45. Those who left 
college before 1900 not only had a markedly 
higher death rate than the honor students, 
but were “moderately” worse off as regards 
life expectancy than the group of alumni 
who had excelled neither in sports nor in 
studies. 

The Metropolitan statistician does not 
speculate as to the reason for the poor show¬ 
ing of the athletes. Undoubtedly it would 
be attributed by most authorities to the 
strain which is put upon the heart by the 
intensive training required of those who 
play on college teams. But how account 
for the longer life shown by the honor 
students? Is exercise of gray matter more 
conducive to longevity than is muscular 
exertion ?—New York Sun 




276 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


‘‘Lindbergh Flies Alone’’ 

Alone? 

Is he alone at whose right side rides 
Courage, with Skill within the cockpit and 
Faith upon the left? Does solitude surround 
the brave when Adventure leads the way 
and Ambition reads the dials? Is there no 
company with him for whom the air is cleft 
by Daring and the darkness is made light by 
Emprise? 

True, the fragile bodies of his fellows do 
not weigh down his plane; true, the fretful 
minds of weaker men are lacking from his 
crowded cabin; but as his airship keeps her 
course he holds communion with those 
rarer spirits that inspire to intrepidity and 
by their sustaining potency give strength 
to arm, resource to mind, content to soul. 

Alone? With what other companions 
would that man fly to whom the choice 
were given ?—New York Sun 


Practice 7 

1 . What is the purpose of each of the preceding editorials? 

2. Compare the editorials of three papers. Which are most readable? 
Most convincing? What is the purpose of each editorial? Is use made 
of sarcasm, irony, invective, satire, humor, illustrations, direct quota¬ 
tions, literary or historical allusions, statistics? Is the paper conserva¬ 
tive or progressive? Republican, Democratic, or independent? 

3. Write an editorial for a local paper. Discuss public officials, taxes, 
tariff, traffic regulations, railroads, business conditions, labor unions, 
candidates for public office, foreign affairs, or a problem of the day. 
Teach, attack, defend, or praise. 

4. Write an editorial to arouse public interest in a need of the com¬ 
munity— public playground, park, better public library, new high- 
school building, rest parlors, apartment houses, better street-car service, 
community singing, community theater, lecture course, better gas, side¬ 
walks, citizens with more civic pride, a new town hall, more street lights, 
civic centers, municipal market, better train service, paved streets. 

Letters to the Editor 

Commonly on the editorial page there is a column in which 
contributors in the form of letters to the editor have their op¬ 
portunity to teach, attack, defend, praise.’’ Most people who 
write letters for publication sign their full names; a few sign 




PUBLICATION 277 

T./^ G./^ Friend of Dumb Animals/^ ^^An Arboreal 

Enthusiast/^ or the like. 

Thinks City Should Take Better 
Care of Trees 

To the Editor of the Times-Dispatch: 

While walking down the street one day 
recently, I stopped to watch some city em¬ 
ployees trim one of our largest, oldest, and 
most beautiful trees and was surprised to 
see just how they were treating it. 

I am not an authority on trees, but I 
know that if these men continue to care 
for them as they are now doing, in ten years’ 
time there will be very few of the beautiful 
ones left. They have already practically 
ruined all the very old trees except those on 
Franklin Street, and even those are now 
beginning to be replaced by small new 
ones which will not even supply shade for 
many years to come. 

Does the city realize that our trees are 
essential to beauty and even to happy life? 

Each of our large trees gives off several 
buckets of water a day, thereby keeping 
the atmosphere fresh and moist. The trees 
absorb carbon dioxide gas, which is poison¬ 
ous to us, and give off oxygen, which is 
necessary to our life. 

Thus in a large city, where there are many 
thousands of people breathing all the time, 
the trees help keep the city healthy and 
fresh. 

Might it not be a wise thing for the city 
to take a definite step for their better 
preservation? 

ARBOREAL ENTHUSIAST 

Richmond, Va., April 6 


Practice 8 

1. What is the purpose of the preceding letter? How does this type 
of letter differ in form from the ordinary business letter? 

2. Bring to class three convincing letters to the editor. What is the 
purpose of each? 

3. Write a letter to the editor of the local paper on a subject like law 
enforcement, traffic regulation, public manners, cruelty to animals, 
man’s summer garb, muzzling dogs, forest fires, better streets, or beautify¬ 
ing the community. Inform, convince, and persuade. 




278 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Newspapers to Study 

When one picks up at random a newspaper or a magazine from 
a news stand and pays for it, he may be buying poison or food; 
he may have selected reading matter intended for intelligent 
people or for people who can read only monosyllables. The 
following are commonly considered outstanding American news¬ 
papers: 

New York Times —^news 

Chicago Evening Post —human interest, columns 

Christian Science Monitor —reliability, foreign news 

New York Herald T’ribune—sports, typography, literary style 

St. Louis Post-Dispatch —pictures 

Los Angeles Times —^human interest, typography 

Baltimore Sun —^literary style, columns 

Detroit News —news 

New York World —editorials, columns, public service 
Boston Evening Transcript —criticism 

Other newspapers that have earned places on this list are the 
Philadelphia Public Ledger, the Atlanta Constitution, the Dallas 
News, the Kansas City Star, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, 
the Milwaukee Journal, the Chicago Daily News, the Ohio State 
Journal, the Portland Oregonian, the New York Sun, the Indian¬ 
apolis News, the New York Evening Post, the Baltimore News, the 
Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe, the Atchison Globe, the Cleve¬ 
land Plain Dealer, the Hartford Courant, and the Emporia Gazette. 

SCHOOL NEWSPAPER 

A school newspaper may contain not only the news of the school 
and editorials but also a humor section or colunrn, cartoons, 
photographs, alumni notes, news of the larger community, letters 
to the editor, interviews, and such special features as poetry, a 
short-story contest, essays, letters from alumni, reviews of books, 
plays, and films, and articles about unusual experiences of teachers 
and pupils. When you are searching for school news, perhaps 
this fist will help you: honor rolls, winners of prizes and awards, 
athletics (old and new players, coach, prospects, practice, story 


PUBLICATION 


279 


before game, report of game), dramatics, music, library, public 
speaking and debating, school improvements, visitors, assemblies, 
clubs, room news, personal items about students, alumni, fresh¬ 
men, junior high school, art and manual training, faculty, school 
bank, unusual class activities or happenings in a class, enter¬ 
tainments, parties, Parent-Teacher Association. 

Pkactice 9 

Using the topics mentioned in the preceding paragraph and 
any others you need, classify the contents of the newspaper of 
your school or another school. 

News Story 

Before writing a news story a successful reporter by inquiry, 
research, and careful observation secures full and accurate in¬ 
formation and thus avoids two common and serious errors, 
inaccuracy and the use of many words to fill space or to conceal 
the fact that the reporter has fittle or no worth-while material. 

Begin an ordinary story with an accurate, brief, and clear lead 
that summarizes the news by answering the questions, “Who?^^ 
‘‘When?” “Where?” “Why?” “What?” features something, and 
is inviting. The following lead from the Hutch-in-Sun is different: 


Sent by Dr. Francis D. Coman, former 
Hutchinson student, who is now physician 
on the Byrd Antarctic expedition, to Mr. 
Piper, his teacher in both physics and 
physical geography, a radiogram was received 
at the school last week. 


Tell clearly and fairly just what happened, then stop. Avoid 
exhortation, I or we, and the expression of your own opinion, 
which is called “editorializing.” The girl who in a story about the 
Swimming Club urges all girls to learn to swim, the boy who in an 
account of a football game criticizes an official, and the reporter 
who in a story before a baseball game exhorts all the pupils to show 
their school spirit by supporting the team are editoriahzing. 
Although one may include comment in a review of a book or play 




280 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


or a sport story, most readers prefer facts to '^dope^' about the 
team or a comparison of a high-school actor with Walter Hampden 
or John Barrymore. 

By using picture-making words or painting action pictures; by 
quoting directly, when possible; by introducing humorous touches; 
and by writing with vim, vigor, and vivacity, make the story 
readable and entertaining. Avoid cheap slang. 


Practice 10 


1. What is the lead of each of the following news stories? Which is 
an informal lead? Why is the informal lead used in this story? What 
questions does the other lead answer? 

2. Did each reporter secure adequate information before writing? 
Prove. 

3. Is a pronoun in the first person used in either article? Is there any 
personal comment? 

4. Is something featured in each story? If so, what is it? 

5. In the articles what picture-making words are used? WTiat direct 
quotations are introduced? What humorous touches? 


Hard-Hearted Teachers Refuse 
His Chance to Earnest Pupil 


He approached the school. It looked 
late, so he hurried. The door was open 
and he went in. 

“Let me see,” he said, “first class is 
English.” 

He ran up the steps and into Room 
210. As he entered, a shout went up 
and he stood there, terrified. The 
teacher looked at him and shouted, 
“Get out of here!” 

Too badly frightened to say any¬ 
thing, he backed out of the room^ 

“Oh, that was the wrong room,” he 
thought. “Perhaps that was a Senior 
class.” 

He walked into Room 209 and took 
a seat at the aisle. Many glances were 
thrown his way, and he wondered if his 
collar was dirty. Perhaps his ears were 
not so clean as they might be. 


He did not contribute anything to the 
recitation, being too timid and still 
feeling the sting of his hasty ejection 
from the neighboring room. Sitting 
very still as he was, he did not attract 
the attention of the teacher. 

When the bell rang, he passed out of 
the room with the other pupils. 

He was making his way down the hall 
when a hand was placed on his collar, 
and he was unceremoniously pushed 
out the nearest exit. 

Finding himself outside of our noble 
institution, he said with a toss of his 
head, “What is this world coming to? 
A dog can’t even be educated these 
days.” 

He went over to the lot and ate 
bones with the other dogs.— Beacon, 
Overbrook High School, 
Philadelphia 






PUBLICATION 


281 


Baby Chicks 
Amuse Boys 

Arc-JLamp and Reflectoscope 
Explained to Reservites 
Sunday Evening 

Arc-lamps, reflectoscopes, and baby chicks 
were some of the topics discussed in assembly 
last Sunday evening by members of the 
science classes, under the supervision of 
Howard Williams, chemistry and physics 
instructor. 

The first speaker of the evening, A1 
Kendall, sub-freshman, was introduced 
by Moderator Bob Heller, senior. Kendall, 
who built an arc-lamp, demonstrated and 
explained how it worked. Eliot Stauffer, 
junior, the next speaker, spoke on the 
importance of chemistry and the different 
projects that were being taken up during 
research week in the chemistry laboratory. 

Bill Harpham, senior, next talked on the 
building of the homemade reflectoscope and 
explained its construction. The last number 
on the program was an illustrated talk 
on the growth of a baby chick while in the 
egg, by Dick Macfarlane, junior. Drawings 
for Macfarlane’s talk were made by Joe 
Tomlinson, freshman. 

George Kubler, junior, was to talk 
on the making of artificial gems, but as 
he was sick, Eliot Stauffer took his place. 

—Western Reserve Record, Western Reserve 
Academy, Hudson, Ohio 

Practice 11 

1. Write leads for news stories about three of the following: a school 
entertainment, a club or class meeting, an outstanding pupil, an excur¬ 
sion, a debate, an assembly, a visitor, a prize winner, a speech, the 
library, a school improvement, a party, an unusual class activity or 
happening in a class. 

2. Complete two of the news stories for which you have written the 
leads. Inform, picture, entertain. 

3. Select a head for one of the articles, figure out how many units each 
line may contain, and write the headlines. 





282 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Sports 

The lead of a story of a game may feature (1) the outcome of 
the game, (2) a brilliant play, (3) improvement in the play of one 
team, (4) the closeness of the game, (5) outstanding performance 
of an individual or individuals, (6) conditions under which the 
contest was held, (7) the records of the teams, (8) the number of 
spectators and their behavior, (9) teamwork, (10) the fighting 
spirit and skill of the contestants, (11) beating a team at its own 
game; for example, forward passing. The reporter may always 
feature the score. 

A good reporter looks at the game with a keen and impartial 
eye and in his story sets down the facts without bias or partisan¬ 
ship. He is as ready to picture the skill, pluck, and sportsmanship 
of the opponents as the brilliant playing and fine spirit of the 
members of his school’s team. 

Although an intelligent and experienced reporter uses in his 
story of a game the vernacular of the sport, he avoids cheap, 
meaningless, and worn-out slang. To make his account vivid and 
forceful he shuns such trite phrases as pigskin chasers^ hooted the 
pigskiUj cinder path artists, and walloped the horsehide. 

In your story of a game write facts,' not your opinions. Do not 
under any circumstances criticize players or officials. 

For the form of the summary at the end of the story consult 
the sports page of any well-edited metropofitan daily paper. 

STIVERS DEFEATS FACULTY ^ 

By Leopold Burick 

A 10-point advantage and seven players on the floor proved too small 
a margin for seven Stivers teachers, and, as a result, some of the East Side 
school faculty are nursing bruised and sore bodies today. 

The final score announced that the state champs had won, 31 to 27, 
but the final count doesn’t tell the tale. First, the Varsity rushed on 
the court bearing picks, baseball bats, hammers and shovels. They 
remembered the Varsity-Faculty game last year in which some of their 
classmates had been shoved and tackled all over the floor. They came 
prepared. 

1 Winner of first prize in a Quill and Scroll national contest. Reprinted by 
permission from Best Creative Work in American High Schools. 


PUBLICATION 


283 


A moment later the teachers entered wearing orange helmets and 
gaudily colored uniforms. Perhaps the instructors scented battle, for 
determined expressions were written on their faces. 

With the entrance of the teachers — seven of them — the audience, 
which packed the Stivers gym, let out roars and guffaws that could have 
been heard throughout the entire schoolhouse. For sauntering down 
the center was Herbert ^^Orbie’^ Schear, who had agreed to referee the 
contest. Mr. Schear raised his hands high and all was quiet. Here’s 
what he said: ^^Ladies and gentlemen, the Faculty of Stivers hereby 
wish to state they are 10 points better than the Varsity. So, score- 
keeper, mark up 10 points for the Faculty.” 

After a bit of discussion on the part of the Varsity five, it was agreed 
that Faculty was to get a 10-point advantage. 

The whistle blew and the players took their places. Farrier and 
Hosket played the forwards, Colburn and Lively the guards, and Payne 
the center position. 

For the teachers, Ralph Cuthbert and Charles Edee started at the 
guard positions, Crowell and Floyd Stahl at the forwards, and Ralph 
Tapper, highly touted assistant chemistry instructor, the center berth. 

The ball seesawed back and forth for three minutes. The teachers 
tackled, they pushed, they held, but to no avail. Of course, the score 
would have been a little bigger, the playing a little smoother, but when 
Faculty and Varsity get together at Stivers a wild battle always ensues. 

With the score deadlocked at 25-25 in the last quarter. Bob Lively 
tore loose, but immediately was grabbed by Crowell and spun around. 
Probably Mr. Lively was a trifle dizzy, for he dribbled the length of 
the floor and made a beautiful basket from underneath the goal. But 
two points went to the Faculty, for the ball went through the wrong 
basket. 

With the score at the half standing 26-10 for the Faculty, Coach 
Claire Sharkey sent Hoskey to center. And again action immediately 
began. For Big Bill couldn’t outjump the assistant chemistry instructor. 
When the ball flew out of Schear’s hands into the air. Tapper proceeded 
to grasp Hosket’s wrists firmly and he himself jumped for it. 

John Hershey and Howard Breidenbach entered in the second half, 
which increased the Faculty team to seven. Hershey demonstrated to 
the several hundred onlookers how to shoot from mid-floor and make 
the ball go through the net without touching. Crowell scored a good 
percentage of the teachers’ points. 

Payne and Lively played best for the Varsity, while honors for the 
Faculty must go to Cuthbert, Crowell, and Stahl, for they were able 
to push and shove a little harder than the rest. 

—Stivers High School, Dayton, Ohio 


284 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


DECREPIT FACULTY ANCIENTS 
BOW TO AGILE MODERN YOUTH 


Traditional Annual Game Ends With 
Score, Seniors 26, Faculty, 24 

The worm turned! 

That is to say, the Seniors, after 
countless losses at the hands of Fa¬ 
culty red-pencil-pushers, during the 
course of a four year encounter, chal¬ 
lenged the Pedagogues to a royal bat¬ 
tle last Monday afternoon. Moreover, 
they named a weapon and a battle¬ 
field of their own choice, namely a 
basketball on a hardwood floor, (Too 
often had red crosses from “faculty 
spears” marked the slaughter on the 
exam paper fields of the professors’ 
choice!) 

With their joints creaking with old 
age, the self-styled Faculty Fumblers 
fell before the Senior Sharpshooters in 
this traditional battle, in which the 
Seniors vaunted their superiority by 
a 26 to 24 verdict. 

Action started in the game when 
Wahl made a connection with the bas¬ 


ket in the first 10 seconds of playing, 
scoring for the Seniors. Miller fol¬ 
lowed his example and hit one for the 
Faculty. . . . 

The laugh was on the faculty in 
the next quarter, when Dillon, general 
“shop shooter,” and Miller, faculty 
star, shot at the wrong basket. (It is 
against the unwritten rules of hard¬ 
wood etiquette to make the wrong 
basket. This rule was strictly ob¬ 
served.) 

Wahl proved the star for the Sen¬ 
ior netmen, with four field goals and one 
free throw. 

Miller was outstanding for the Edu¬ 
cators, and tied up the score twice 
by a pair of free throws. But flaming 
youth could not be denied, and the 
funny, faulty, failing, foiled Faculty 
Fumblers failed to find the basket freely 
and foolishly filed off the floor follow¬ 
ing the fateful fray, 

—The Optimist 

Bloomington, Indiana 


Practice 12 

1. Write a color story of a championship game or a game with your 
school’s chief rival. Picture the crowd, the day, the field, the appearance 
of the players, the beginning of the game, spectacular plays, the actions 
of the spectators. 

2. Write an “advance” story of the next game your school team 
will play. 

Interview 

Before interviewing a man find out as much as you can about 
him and his career, write out the questions you intend to ask, and 
train your memory to retain accurately his important replies. 
In the interview ask your questions tactfully, but stick to your 
task if the celebrity tries to escape you and your questions. In 
the lead of the news story of the interview, feature (1) a direct or 








PUBLICATION 


285 


an indirect quotation from the person interviewed, (2) his name, 
(3) his appearance, (4) his surroundings, (5) difficulty in reaching 
him, (6) subject discussed, or (7) purpose of the interview. 


Examples of interviews: 

iTARKHAM SPEAKS WITH 
HIGH SCHOOL REPORTERS 

By Kathleen Mason 

“The only time I ever ran away 
from anything was when I left home 
at fifteen,” said Edwin Markham, 
famous poet who is well-known for 
his poem, “The Man With The Hoe.” 

No one, not even a pair of timid 
high-school girls, could be ill at ease 
when in the presence of this kindly 
gentleman, who says that his two out¬ 
standing goals are to lift gloom from 
cities and to confer titles of nobility. 
Indeed, he frequently addressed us as 
“My ladies,” and “Your Highnesses.” 

The poet’s life is as interesting as 
a fairy tale, from the time when he 
discovered a bag of gold upon which 
he went to college, through the time 
when he was a cowboy, till now, as 
he approaches his eightieth anniver¬ 
sary. 

It was when he was 47 years old 
that Markham wrote his masterpiece, 
“The Man With The Hoe,” which was 
inspired by seeing Millet’s famous pic¬ 
ture. 

We were interested in his philoso¬ 
phy of life, which he says is embodied 
in his poems. 

To a would-be poet, this famous one 
says, “Study your art. Read antholo¬ 
gies. Don’t be satisfied with yourself. 
Read well-known prose, and lastly, live 
while you are doing these things. Make 
yourself a poem!” 

As a parting gift, Edwin Markham 
presented to Bloomington High School 
a signed copy of both “The Man With 
The Hoe,” and “Lincoln, the Man of 
the People,” which are now posted on 
the Senior bulletin board. 

—The Optimist 

\ Bloomington, Indiana 


Zimmerman Talks 
With Cub Interviewers 


“What do you think this is?” quer¬ 
ied Mr. Robert Zimmerman to the two 
interviewers who were trudging back 
and forth across the stage after him, 
Wednesday, as he was preparing the 
stage for his lecture before the Junior 
and Senior High Schools. 

“A rock?” suggested one. 

“No, it’s a fish,” said the other. 

“You’re both wrong. Now pick it 
up. Yes, it’s a very rare colored shell,” 
he continued turning the orange colored 
shell over. “I found this one day 
last summer as I was searching through 
the coral. I think I’ll have it made into 
a tie pin some day,” he concluded mat- 
ter-of-factly. 

He talked on to us, as pleased as 
any one would be with our “Oh’s” and 
“Ah’s.” Mr. Zimmerman related many 
harrowing experiences, including the 
three times when his air supply was 
cut off and he was brought to the sur¬ 
face unconscious. 

Mr. Zimmerman, who has worked 
with moving picture companies almost 
exclusively during the 18 years he has 
been engaged in deep sea diving, figures 
that he has spent from 4000 to 5000 
hours under water during this time. 

“Under the water the coral assumes 
many beautiful colors . . . and for that 
matter, so does the barracuda, the 
fish that we are most afraid of,” Mr. 
Zimmerman added, with a chuckle. 

For the past three years he has 
toured lecturing to schools during the 
winter, and has confined his sea ad¬ 
ventures to the summer. 

—The Optimist 

Bloomington, Indiana 








286 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Humor 

The poorest humor column is the one made up of jokes which 
the humor editor copies without securing permission or giving 
credit in the usual form. A good editor realizes that there is 
plenty of humor in the school, catches some of it, and sets it down 
in his column along with witty remarks, bits of exaggeration and 
understatement, incongruities, unexpected turns, ludicrous similes 
and metaphors, anticlimaxes, and word play. Because of his good 
sense and kindliness he admits to the column nothing that will 
hurt a student or teacher. 



Notice: This column contains nothing but 
pure U. S. inspected Boloney sausage, and a 
small amount of apple sauce. 

—Board of Health 

W E have been studying magnetism in physics class. One day a 
member of the class mentioned the fact that passing a certain girl 
will always give him a distinct electric shock, and inquired if this was 
due to magnetism. The explanation was simple: Everything she 
wears is charged. 

— o — 

A fellow whom I admire 
Is this man William Borah. 

He makes the candidates show 
Just where they stand, begorrah! 

— o — 

Dan Rauenzar remarks that it is rather a slam on the medical profession 
to speak the names of these Wa-Hi students together: Doctor — Fillmore — 
Graves. 

1 Winner of first prize in a national Quill and Scroll contest. Reprinted by 
permission from Best Creative Work in American High Schools. 







PUBLICATION 


287 


Have you ever thought that — every time you put a dollar bill in 
your pocket, you double it? 

— o — 

Can it be possible that we have cannibals in this vicinity? Ad in 
local paper reads: “Wanted — Young woman for cooking. Will pay 
forty dollars.” 


HEARD ON THE RADIO 

You have just listened to a talk by Professor Cractbrayne on his 
latest invention — the emotimeter. Whiteman’s band will now play 
“Forget It.” 

If we could tune in on Station STYX we might get a program 
similar to this: 

Weather Report.Noah 

Waterloo Blues.Napoleon’s Band 

Good Roads Talk.Julius Caesar 

Violin Solo, “The Burning of Rome”.Nero 

“How I Brought Down the House”. . . .Samson 
Experience of the First Lady Barber... .Delilah 

— o — 

In spite of reports to the contrary, Lindbergh is still flying. You simply 
can’t keep a good man down. 

— o — 

Of all the fakers that we know, 

There’s one you must beware — 

The psychoanalyst who tries 
To lure you to his lair. 

For while he talks with words profound 
And solemn, mystic look. 

He’s thinking how to get the cash 
That’s in your pocket book. 

— o —■ 

Paradoxical as it may seem, in Tacoma one sees the Sound and 
hears the Sea. 

—Walla Walla (Washington) High School 

— o — 

LAUGHLETS 

Would-be-Poet (junior class): I put my whole mind in this verse. 
Miss Webster: Evidently. I see it’s blank verse. 

— o — 

Lost: An umbrella by a man with six bent ribs and an ivory dome. 

—Albert Lea (Minnesota) High School 






288 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


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SPITE OF ITS PRILT TOHCuE WPRS. 





Jesse Stern in the Domino, Richmond Hill (New York) High School 

























PUBLICATION 


289 


SNAPSHOTS 


Our second annual field day has been held and is now a thing 
of the past, but in the minds of the spectators it will live forever. 
The admission was ten cents, but it was worth ten dollars. Suffice 
it to say that those of us who went to the games with the sole 
intention of getting a good laugh at the expense of the teachers 
— if there were any inspired with this criminal intent — were 
pleasantly, or shall we say sadly, disappointed. 

The feature event of the day, and the one which brought out 
the most spectators, and caused the most cheering, was, of course, 
the 120-yard dash open only to the respected members of the 
faculty. Over twenty of our fame-hungry teachers responded 
to the call, and practiced faithfully for the event. Not in the 
gym, of course, for what teacher would display his sturdy build 
and bare shanks to the rude eyes of the schoolboy, but 

“Between the dark and the daylight, 

When no one was in sight. 

Huge and lumbering figures 
Rushed by and into the night.^’ 

The figures were those of a few of our teachers. And the fast 
time in which they ran the 120-yard handicap proved the effective¬ 
ness of this practice. To hold such a run weekly or monthly 
would be a good thing for the pedagogues. Then they would 
have to keep in condition all the time, and we would not have so 
many stout people around the building. 

Practice 13 

Have you seen something humorous in or about school? Write it 
up for the Snapshot column. If you picture what you saw, your readers 
will laugh too. 

Editorial 

Editorials too often are vague and general treatments of hack¬ 
neyed topics and too seldom get down to definite information, 
specific constructive suggestion, or a real issue. Don’t think of 



290 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


editorials as bitter medicine which the pupils must swallow; if 
you do, the pupils will get their revenge by skipping the editorial 
page. Don’t tell the woes of the editorial staff or lament that the 
school spirit of the “old days” has gone forever. These are 
boresome ancient tunes. 


Grudges 

Scientists, by actual brutal observation, 
have noticed that an elephant will hold a 
grudge forever. Feed him trick peanuts as 
a boy, and he will recognize and remember 
you as an old man with a long white beard, 
and, if he gets a chance, will squirt water 
all over you with his trunk. 

We resemble other animals in enough 
ways, without adding to the list by acting 
like an elephant and keeping a grudge for 
years. Arguments weren’t made to last 
forever. The only good in them is the tem¬ 
porary enjoyment while arguing, and the 
lasting enjoyment when settling it. 

We are more civilized than the hilly- 
billies of Kentucky who keep up their 
family feuds for generations, even when the 
cause of enmity has long been forgotten. 

What is the good of holding a grudge 
against some one because he differs from 
you on a subject and doesn’t hesitate to 
say so? Is that a sufficient reason for you 
to hold up your head and look past your 
opponent when you meet him in the hall? 
You only make yourself look foolish and 
snobbish. 

He who cannot find some excuse to make 
up with a friend after a little tiff is an 
unsociable person indeed. The quicker you 
get on good terms the better, because every 
day widens the breach between you. 

So let’s act more like human beings and 
less like elephants, forgiving and forgetting 
all little spats we may have had with our 
friends in the past. 

—Lake reView 
Lake View High School 

Chicago 




PUBLICATION 


291 


A Leader Passes 

By the passing of Superintendent 
L. C. Ward, Fort Wayne schools have 
suffered the loss of their strongest men¬ 
tor. Mr. Ward’s heart and soul were 
in the betterment of education and he 
achieved more in the progress of city 
schools than any other one man. It 
was through his untiring efforts that 
South Side is the school it is today. 
It is well-known that the one-story 
high school plan by which South Side 
was built was an original idea of Mr. 
Ward’s. He was responsible for many 
other attractive features and equip¬ 
ment of this school, including the sta¬ 
dium, the large gymnasium, and the 
well-equipped athletic and science de¬ 
partments. Not only was Mr. Ward’s 
influence felt in the physical equipment 
of the school, but in scholastic views 
as well. He was able to draw teachers 
to the city from any direction because 
of his capability of making conditions 
for them here more than pleasant. In 
his hands rested the fate of Fort Wayne 
schools for the past eleven years and 
by his efficiency he has built up high 
standards of scholarship, sportsman¬ 
ship, and friendly competition. 

—The South Side Times 

Fort Wayne, Indiana 

TO US, IN TRUST, 

THEIR TOMORROWS. 

Here and in France lie many thou¬ 
sands of youths who more than a decade 
ago, gave up the joys of living to die 
in step with the martial music of war. 

To the trenches went gay-hearted, 
serious-minded, life-loving youths from 
all types of homes. They gave their 
“tomorrows” for our “today.” 

What are we going to do with the 
“tomorrow” which cost them so dearly? | 


It is for us to decide whether or 
not the sacrifices they made shall have 
weight or whether they shall have been 
useless in destroying war as a means 
of solving problems. Shall the horrors 
of war be repeated? 

We, the youth of the nation, are 
the owners of that “tomorrow” for 
which they died. It is for us to decide. 

—The Optimist 

Bloomington, Indiana 

CONGRATULATIONS! 

The granting of the National Fo¬ 
rensic charter to Bloomington High 
School should be a source of great pride 
to every student. 

Only 334 of the thousands of high 
schools in the country have achieved 
this distinction. With this number, 
who recognize debating as an important 
and worthwhile activity, and who have 
been successful on the debate platform, 
Bloomington High School now takes 
her place. 

Debate, from earliest times recog¬ 
nized as one of the most important 
of “intellectual sports,” had lapsed in 
the local school. Its successful revival 
has been the cause of great satisfaction. 

Now, by proving themselves eligible 
to a national forensic organization, local 
debaters have shown their mettle. 
They have made it possible to proph¬ 
esy a continuance of the past season’s 
successes, and increased interest in de¬ 
bating as a student activity. 

Only those who will profit directly 
from the securing of this charter realize 
how much time and effort has been spent 
in order to obtain it. Their work is 
responsible for the school’s admission to 
a national organization whose member¬ 
ship carries with it distinct honor. 

—The Optimist 

Bloomington, Indiana 


Practice 14 

Write an editorial for the school paper on clean-up week, school 
loyalty, school sanitation, student government, courtesy, wasted time, 
slang, the dictionary habit, thrift, ambition, the New Year, vandalism. 







292 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


vulgarity, street-car rowdyism, lunch-room behavior, paper in the school 
yard and on the street, the Athletic Association, a school organization 
or club, the football team (or another team), concentration, the assembly, 
candidates, value of examinations, fads in dress, a new course of study, 
a new order of the Board of Education, a new rule or regulation, leisure 
time, building foundations, cheating, or another topic. 

An Open Mind 

The next worst thing to having no 
convictions is having hardened convictions, 
which have petrified. Sometimes the brain 
cell seems to set like concrete. To introduce 
a new thought requires a blasting operation. 

The happiest people in the world are those 
who cultivate the virtue of open-mindedness. 

Any one who can pass the age of sixty and 
still have an open mind is a great man. 

An open mind is more to be admired and 
more to be desired than great riches. That 
is not an exaggeration. How painful it must 
be to go through life, suffering mental 
agony, because changes are made that re¬ 
quire the bending or breaking of fixed con¬ 
victions. Every sensible man is confirmed 
in the absolute truth of certain principles. 

No sensible man supposes that he has a 
monopoly on truth. 

If there is such a thing as the fountain 
of youth, the source of this youth eternal is 
an open mind. I know many young-old 
people, and I observe one common mental 
characteristic—a mental reception room 
where ideas are received hospitably. 

Make this your prayer—an open mind! 

Happiness and youth will be yours all the 
days of*your life. Look forward, not back¬ 
ward, with an open mind. 

—The Oracle, 

Abington (Pennsylvania) High School 


Practice 15 

1. Complete this letter for publication on the editorial page or 
write on another topic. 

To the Editor: 

May I suggest a few changes in the assemblies 
for the entertainment and instruction of the pupils. 

2. Criticize the last number of the school newspaper. Or ex- 




PUBLICATION 293 

plain how to make the school paper brighter and better. Or 
discuss the benefits derived from a school paper. 

Books for School Journalists 

Hyde, Grant M.: A Course in Journalistic Writing 

Harrington, H. F. and Harrington, Evaline: The Newspaper Club 

Otto, William N.: Journalism for High Schools 

Borah, Leo A.: News Writing 

Harrington, H. F.: Writing for Print 

Spencer, M. Lyle: News Writing 

Bleyer, Willard G.: Newspaper Writing and Editing 

Flint, L. N.: News Writing in High School 

Harrington, H. F. and Frankenberg, T. T.: Essentials of Journalism 

Huff, Bessie M.: How to Publish a School Paper 

Dillon, Charles: Journalism for High Schools 

Harrington, H. F.: Typical Newspaper Stories 

Cunliffe, J. W. and Lomer, Gerhard R.: Writing of Today 

Hyde, Grant M. : Handbook for Newspaper Workers 

SCHOOL MAGAZINE 

In addition to the school newspaper most large high schools 
publish a literary and art magazine containing, perhaps, short 
stories, poems, essays, a one-act play, humor, editorials, exchanges, 
pictures illustrating the stories and poems, other art work, and 
feature articles. Many small high schools combine these two 
publications and issue either a newspaper or a magazine con¬ 
taining both news and literary and art work. 

For suggestions about writing stories, consult Chapter XVI. 
Everything submitted for publication in the magazine should, 
of course, be original and representative of the school and should 
somehow reflect the spirit of the school. By writing sincerely 
and effectively about ideas, people, and happenings within 
their experience, pupils give a school magazine a pleasing literary 
style and local color. 

STUDYING MAGAZINES 
Peactice 16 

1. Name six weekly magazines, twelve monthlies, and one quarterly. 

2. Classify these magazines under the headings: news and politics, 


294 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


general reading, literature, drama, humor, religion, science, women^s 
interests, political and social reform, technical journals (business, finance, 
medicine, law, education, agriculture). 

3. Read and criticize the composition comparing two magazines. 
Point out the best and worst about it. 

'‘MOTOR LIFE’’ AND THE “SATURDAY EVENING POST” 

1. Points of comparison 

2. Purpose of publication of the two magazines 

3. Price, circulation, and class of readers appealed to 

4. Illustrations 

5. Advertisements 

6. Articles 

Motor Life and the Saturday Evening Post differ widely in purpose 
of publication, circulation, appeal, illustrations, advertisements, and 
articles. 

The purpose of Motor Life is to give accurate and interesting informa¬ 
tion about the automobile world; that of the Saturday Evening Post 
is to give to the public good reading matter at a small price. 

Hence we see that Motor Life at a cost of thirty-five cents per copy 
has a circulation among a motor-loving group of the public of about 
15,000 copies per issue. The Post at a cost of five cents per copy has a 
circulation among a large, motley, and cosmopolitan group of people of 
approximately 2,000,000. 

Motor Life is more profusely illustrated than the Post, and its art 
work and arrangement are superior to those of the Post. The cover, 
which is always in four colors, enhances the beauty of the magazine. 
The half-tones are thoughtfully placed throughout the whole, making it 
the more attractive. The Post’s illustrations are less plentiful and, 
printed on a cheaper paper, show up to less advantage. 

These two magazines have also their distinct advertising advantages. 
Because the Post reaches such a large and cosmopolitan public, adver¬ 
tisements placed in it are valuable to almost all advertisers. The cost 
of space, however, must also be considered — a back cover page in the 
Post averaging about $15,000 for one insertion. Motor Life, although 
it has a comparatively small circulation, is valuable as a medium to 
certain manufacturers. Since it reaches people interested in automobiles, 
manufacturers of motor cars and their accessories find this just the 
medium to satisfy their needs. A page here costs only about $1,000 per 
issue. 

The articles in Mfkor Life discuss topics of special interest to motorists: 
latest models of cars, automobile inventions, repairs, highways, driving, 
touring, legislation, insurance, and accessories. The Saturday Evening 


PUBLICATION 


295 

Post publishes many stories, a fair proportion of which deal with busi¬ 
ness or politics. A good serial story, “More Precious than Rubies,’’recently 
published in the Post, illustrates the type which that magazine carries. 
It tells of happenings in America and France, and gives considerable 
information about the jewelry business. The Post has also instructive 
business articles by men who are prominent in the affairs of the country, 
and editorials on a wide range of topics. The editor, George H. Lorimer' 
a business man of the best American type, has instilled a high moral 
tone into this popular weekly.— Pupil’s Theme 


Practice 17 

Write or speak on topics 1, 2, and 3, on 4 or 5, and on one other 
topic: 

1. Report on Collier’s Weekly, National Geographic, Scholastic, Literary 
Digest, Review of Reviews, World’s Work, Youth’s Companion, St. Nicholas, 
Popular Mechanics, Good Housekeeping, American, Country Gentleman, 
Scientific American, Century, Scribner’s, Harper’s, Pictorial Review, 
Ladies’ Home Journal, Outlook, Boy’s Life, House Beautiful, Bookman, 
Forum, Nature Magazine, Time, Atlantic Monthly, North American 
Review, or another worth-while magazine. Use these topics: purpose, 
class of readers appealed to, price, circulation, illustrations, advertise¬ 
ments, articles (fiction, special articles, current events, criticism, poetry), 
reason for success. 

2. Comparison of two magazines. 

3. In a brief speech convince the pupils that they should subscribe 
for the Literary Digest or another magazine. 

4. Reproduction of a magazine article. 

5. What I learned from a magazine article. 

6. My favorite magazine. 

7. Educational value of magazines. 

8. Significance of names of magazines — World’s Work, Saturday 
Evening Post, Vogue, Popular Mechanics, Life, Review of Reviews, Outlook, 
Literary Digest, System. 


CLASS PAPER 

A class paper is less ambitious and expensive than the school 
paper. Copies may be run off on the mimeograph, or the paper 
may be read aloud in class or the assembly and posted on the 
bulletin board or placed in the library. Commonly the editorial 
staff serves for just one issue. The class may decide what depart- 


296 


ENGLISH IN ACTION. 
AMERICAN SPEECH WEEK NUMBER 


CENTRAL TOM THUMB TIMES 


Published by 12a English Class 


Editors 

Deborah Evans, Editor-in-Chief 
Leon Parry 
Kathryn England 
George Swenson 
Charles Hartwell 


The first Better Speech Week 
was held in the Eastern District 
High School, Brooklyn, in 1915, 
Since that time the movement has 
swept the country. This year 
American Speech Week will be 
observed from Maine to California. 

Central’s slogan is: Be a 'patriot. 
Speak English. A real patriot is 
proud of his country and its lan¬ 
guage. Our watchwords are audi- 
bility, grammar, freedom from dialect. 
To speak in a mumbling, lazy, in¬ 
distinct manner is discourteous and 
annoying. Grammatical errors indi¬ 
cate lack of education. Dialect is 
"fifty-fifty” English—a mixture of 
English with Italian, Russian, Ger¬ 
man, or some other language. 

He May Recover 

"O doctor, tell me quick and clear; 
I must know why I feel so queer.” 
The doctor spoke this sad refrain: 
"Bad English germs are on your 
brain.” 

Slang 

Slang is like salt—a pinch is good; 
A heaping handful spoils the food. 


Every Monday Morning 

March straight up to the teacher’s 
desk; 

Stand firmly on both feet; 

Look bravely at your fellow-men; 
"Hands off” that dear front seat. 

Which Do You Say? 

Yeh, yep, yuh, uh-huh, or yes. 
Seazem, or sees him. 

Me'n you, or you and I. 

Movin’ pitchers, or moving pictures. 
Ancha got ya home'work done? or 
Haven’t you done your homework? 

He ain’t got no money, or 
He hasn’t any money. 

Wy doncha tellim so? or 
Why don’t you tell him so? 

Where’d yuh git dat? or 
Where did you get that? 

Whereja go ta? or 
Where did you go to? 

You orta seenim, or 
You ought to have seen him. 

Stop! Look! Listen I 

Stop using slang. 

Look out for mistakes. 

Listen for good English. 

Let there be no traitor to the 
English language. 

Are you a glutton who swallows 
the last syllable of every word? 

Are you afflicted with the this- 
here and that-there disease? 









PUBLICATION 


297 


ments to include and select three, four, or five editors-in-chief, 
who then choose in turn their assistant editors. Every pupil 
should have a place on one of the editorial staffs. 

Practice 18 

1. Decide on a name and the departments to be included, select 
editors, and publish a paper. Let the class artist prepare the cover and 
illustrations. 

2. After reading the first page of the American Speech Week number 
of the Central Tom Thumb Times, prepare a class paper for a special 
purpose or occasion: speech week, clean-up week, courtesy week, value 
of a high-school education, athletics, good school citizenship, radio, 
Arbor Day, Christmas, Lincoln’s Birthday, or Washington’s Birthday. 

ADVERTISING 
Classified Advertising 

A person who is looking for work naturally turns to the Help 
Wanted column in the newspaper; one who wishes to buy a house 
or second-hand car reads carefully the For Sale column. Hence a 
classified advertisement should be just a concise statement of 
facts. 


Practice 19 

1. Your family or the family of a friend are moving to another city or 
town. Write advertisements to sell (1) the house, (2) the furnishings, 
(3) an automobile, a bicycle, or a radio set. 

2. Your cat or dog is lost. Write the advertisement for the Lost and 
Found column. Make it easy to identify your pet. 

3. Advertise a lost watch or other piece of jewelry. 

4. You have just completed your education. Write about yourself 
for the Situations Wanted column. 

5. Paste in your notebook six good classified advertisements. Why 
did you select each? 

6. You wish to rent a vacant room in your home. Write the adver¬ 
tisement. 

7. Your father has decided to sell a vacant lot or a farm. Write the 
advertisement for him. 


298 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Lost 


LOST—Boston bull, brindle, white mark¬ 
ings, screw tail, bat ears; reward. Stanley, 
501 West 178th St. 


For Sale 


SURROUNDED by handsome old trees and 
retired from the road on a hill, 7-room 
cottage, overlooking beautiful little river; 
old well, broad stepping stones, quaint 
terraces, barn, chicken houses and garage, 
shrubbery and fruit; approach over good 
State road; four miles from village; $5,000; 
70 minutes from New York; express service; 
country club, bathing beach. Mrs. R. W. 
Huller, Westport, Conn. Tel. 1226. 


ABSOLUTE sacrifice, furnishings private 
residence; mahogany baby grand, like 
new; floor lamps, library lamp, oriental rugs 
large and small; mahogany gateleg table, 
6 Windsor chairs, dinner wagon, serving 
table, tilting table, easy chairs, mirrors, 
ivory bedroom set, bookcase and secretary, 
bed pillows, &c. 723^ Irving Place, near 
East 19th St. 


AUTOMOBILES 


STUDEBAKER President sedan, 1927, 
fully equipped, wire wheels, extra wheels, 
6 cord tires, rear stop signal, bumper, rear 
vision mirror, excellent mechanical condi¬ 
tion; mileage 4,000; liberal time payments. 
Circle 0562. 


Display Advertising 

The display advertisement must first attract attention, for 
money spent on advertising is wasted if nobody sees the advertise¬ 
ment. Headlines, illustrations, contrast, borders, and large type 
are devices for attracting attention. By suggesting or arguing, 
the advertisement should also arouse desire and persuade to buy. 


Practice 20 

1. Chp the ten best advertisements from a magazine or news¬ 
paper and paste them in your notebook or scrapbook. Justify 
your selection of each advertisement by answering these questions 
about it: 











PUBLICATION 299 

(1) Does it mention cost? Quality? A special reduction? Benefit to 
the purchaser (health, economy of time, knowledge, pleasure, progress)? 

(2) Does it make use of colors? Contrast? Borders? Large type? 

(3) ^ Is it illustrated? Does the illustration suggest action? Is it 
artistic? Does it catch the attention? Does it attract attention but not 
to the article advertised? 

(4) Is it cleverly phrased? Has it a striking headline, trade name, or 
trade-mark? 

(5) Does it argue or suggest? Is it conservative? Does it overstate? 

(6) Has it humorous touches? 

(7) Will you remember the advertisement and the article advertised? 
Why? 

2. Prepare a poster or a newspaper advertisement of a club 
meeting, game, debate, public lecture, play, school paper, concert, 
speaking contest, book, magazine, newspaper, fountain pen, 
baseball, or other article. 

3. You are on the advertising staff of the school paper and have 
sold a page advertisement to a local merchant. Prepare an ad¬ 
vertisement for him. 

4. Compare the advertisements in two magazines—articles ad¬ 
vertised, size of advertisements, devices for attracting attention, 
and class of people appealed to. 

PROOF READING 

Almost every one at some time has printing done—the school 
paper, a program, a booklet, an article or story, or a window card. 
The manuscript sent to the printer is called copy. The proof, a 
first printing, is sent to the writer for corrections. 

In reading proof, the copyholder reads the manuscript, telling 
the punctuation, capitalization, and paragraphing; the proof¬ 
reader places in the margin a set of symbols to indicate the cor¬ 
rections to be made. He also indicates where in the line the error 
is. He, for example, draws a diagonal line through a wrong letter 
or punctuation mark or underscores it, and puts a caret where 
something is to be inserted. Successive proof marks are arranged 
in the order of the errors and separated by diagonal lines:— 
O / tr / #. Other directions to the printer are circled or marked 
To the 'printer. 


300 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Proof Reader’s Marks 


5 

# 

V vv 

or eq f 

w.f. 

NoM 

□ 

[ 

] 


X 


II 

tr 

3 


Delete. Leave out. 

Leave a space. 

Equalize the spacing of the line. 

Don’t leave a space. 

Wrong font. Type of wrong size or style has been used. 
Begin a paragraph here. 

Don’t begin a paragraph. 

Indent. 

Move to the left. 

Move to the right. 

Raise. 

Lower. 

A broken or imperfect type. 

A lead spacer shows between words. 

Straighten the line. 

Straighten the margin. 

Transpose the letters or words as indicated. 

Letter upside down. 


* ■'' Don’t make the correction indicated. The proof is correct, 
or st6t 

Words have been omitted from the copy. 

see copy 

“ Use capitals, 
or caps ^ 

~~ Use small capitals, 
or s.c. 

l.c. Lower case. Use small letters. 
rom Use roman type. 

Use italic type. 

or ital 


Use boldface type. 

or bold 

A Insert. 

= Insert a hyphen. 

G Insert a period. 

V Insert an apostrophe. 

^ Insert quotation marks. 
center Place in the center of the page. 

Qy or ? These marks are used by the printer to ask the writer whether 
his date, fact, punctuation, or spelling is correct. 


PUBLICATION 


301 






Brooklyn Tech Holds 
Football Team to Tie 

Captains Hofer and Desmond 
Star in Game 

The gridiron teams of Brooklyn 
Tech and Richmond hill clashed at 
Dexter Park on Saturday, Octo/ber 
13. The Red and Gray representa- 






tives had toy^satisfied with a score- 
less tie, which inReality was a moral • 

victory for Tech, as the game was the 
visitor^first of the season. 

Ca^ain Hofer’s cohorts^^lo ^ouldi 
show supremacy till the closing min- * 
utes of the final quarter, and then a 
penalty materially aided in the 
vention of a touchdown. 

../Yd ^ A drive had been started from the 
home team’s 3^ yard line, and by 
means of line plunges by Hofer . 

Fuchs, and Brenner and a 30'yard 
forward from Brenner to Mobius, the 
ball was advanced to Tech’s H-yard 
white stripy^ 

O As there were only about two min¬ 
utes of play left, the Richmond root- 
Jers cheered fo^ touchdown. The 
threat was averted by Tech, however, 
for, aided by a 5'yard penalty /QJOiJ^ 

^ the HillieSyyCaptain Desmond’s 
teammates successfully held for 
downs. 

In addition to thi^rie^xcitement, 

* the other features of tne contest werc^ 

^,C, ^he brilliant punting of Fuchs^nd 
Maas, with Fi^s having a sWght 
edge,- the all-around pkying of the 
opposing capj^s, Hofer and Des- 
mond, anc^beautiful falling catches 
of -©fi- forward passes, one by MobiUs 
and thither by Dougherty. Cooper 
also played well for Richmoi^ Hill, 
but he was forced to leave the game 
in the first quartery^*e-€0-an injury 


O 


< 3 /- 


6 / 


s 


o to his nose 


i 





302 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Practice 21 

1. Explain the printer's symbols in the corrected proof on page 139. 

2. Copy the selection, making every correction indicated. 

Practice 22 

What errors are there in the following proof? How would you 
make clear to the printer every change to be made? 

How straingely in ear nest you are!’^ exclaimed Phoebe, looking At him 
with surprise and perplexity; half alarmed and partly inclined to laugh. 
‘‘You talk of the lunacy of the Pyncheon’s; Is it contageous?’^ I under¬ 
stand you! SAID the artist, colouring and laughing. “I beleive I am a 
little mad. this subject has taken hold of my mind with the greatest 
tenacity of clutch since I have lodged in yonder old ga^le. 

As one method of throwing it off I have ptu an incident of the Pyncheon 
famly histry, with which I happen to be acquanted, into the form of a 
legend, and mean to publish it in a magazine’^ Do you write for the 
magazines, Inquired Phoebe. 


CHAPTER XIV 

NARRATION 

Why Study Narration? 

Have you ever had a thrilling experience and after telling it to 
a group found them unimpressed? Have you laughed until your 
sides hurt at a clown or a comedy and called forth only smiles by 
your account? Then, perhaps, another set the group laughing 
uproariously at something not half so funny or made their hair 
stand on end wdth an account of an exploit not so exciting as yours. 
The difficulty with your story-telling was that the group didn't 
see the exploit, clown, or comedy as you saw it. As a story-teller 
you were a failure. 

What Narration Is 

A narrative is a succession of events, usually arranged in the 
order in which they happened. Just as a moving-picture producer 
shows us happenings on the screen, so the narrative writer aims 
by means of words to make the reader an eyewitness of the events. 
Narratives commonly contain descriptive and explanatory sen¬ 
tences, and sometimes brief arguments or informal debates. If 
in a story the author pictures persons or places, he is using de¬ 
scription; if he tells why the hero does not take advantage of his 
opportunity to secure vengeance, he is explaining. 

Kinds of Narratives 

Narration is a broad term including biography, history, drama, 
novel, romance, short story, narrative poetry, anecdote, and 
incident. A narrative may be a series of disconnected happenings, 
an incident carefully told, or a story with a plot. When you are 
in camp, at the seashore, or on a trip, father and mother and your 
pals enjoy letters that look like extracts from your diary, because 
they are keenly interested in you and everything you do. To 

303 


304 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


write a narrative that will entertain strangers, however, one needs 
to select, arrange, and tell skillfully. Composition means putting 
together connected ideas. 

Biography 

Biographies vary in length from a single paragraph to ten or 
more thick volumes. Because modern biographies are specific, 
vivid, lively, and vital, they are as entertaining as novels. 

Example: 

IF ORVILLE WRIGHT HAD BEEN DISCOURAGED ^ 

Striving from boyhood to make an airplane, Orville Wright, with his 
brother Wilbur, reached the threshold of success—then was jeered and 
snubbed, and when the two tried to do the big patriotic thing, they were 
insulted. 

Born in Dayton, Ohio, sons of a bishop, they were inspired by a toy 
helicopter and vainly tried to make a flying machine. They went 
through college, invented a safety brake for bicycles, and began the man¬ 
ufacture of “wheels”—^but they did not forget the airplane idea. 

Studying and experimenting for four years more, they made a machine 
that would fly, but would not carry any one. Two years later they could 
make grasshopperlike flights in it, and in another year Wilbur, on De¬ 
cember 17,1903, flew for fifty-nine seconds at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. 

Returning home, they tried to give an exhibition. There was not suffi¬ 
cient wind the first day, the motor went wrong the second, and the 
crowds smiled disparagingly. Another year of effort, and the machine 
flew twelve miles, carrying an operator. 

The bicycle business had dwindled and funds were low. Father sold 
his farm and sister Katherine gave all her savings to help. Patriotism 
called, and the boys offered the invention as a gift to the United States 
Government. Their first letter was not answered. The reply to the 
second called them a couple of cranks. 

Charles R. Flint of New York loaned them $10,000. Wilbur went to 
France. The French called him the “Yankee bluffer,” saw him fly, then 
named him the “bird man,” and he sold the French rights to the machine 
for $100,000. The Italian rights brought $200,000. 

The United States wanted a two-passenger machine. Orville perfected 
one. In the trial flight the propeller failed to operate properly and the 
passenger was killed and Orville injured in the crash. 

The United States became interested; the brothers began to make 

1 Reprinted by permission of the New York World. 


NARRATION 305 

airplanes and won international fame. Then Wilbur died and Orville 
had to continue alone. 

Last December Orville was honored in a nation-wide celebration com¬ 
memorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first flight of the Wright 
airplane. 

Practice 1 

Using the tabloid biography of Orville Wright as a model, write on 
“If Robert E. Peary had been discouraged.” For Robert E. Peary you 
may substitute Booth Tarkington, Mark Twain, Eugene O’Neill, Abraham 
Lincoln, George Washington, Robert E. Lee, William H. Taft, Samuel 
Gompers, Alfred E. Smith, Herbert Hoover,Vilhjalmur Stefansson, Maude 
Adams, Jane Addams, George W. Goethals, David Belasco, Edward M. 
Statler, Charles E. Hughes, Julia Marlowe, Daniel Boone, Sir Walter 
Scott, Louis Pasteur, Ludwig van Beethoven, Tolstoy, Florence Night¬ 
ingale, Benjamin Franklin, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jacob Riis, David 
Livingstone, Joan of Arc, Galileo, Charles A. Lindbergh, Napoleon 
Bonaparte, Julius Caesar, Benito Mussolini, Roald Amundsen, Richard 
E. Byrd, John J. Pershing. 

How to Tell an Experience 

1. In the introduction answer the questions, “Wlio?” “When?” 
“Where?” and “What?” and by introducing a struggle or compli¬ 
cation try to arouse interest or excite curiosity. Waste no time in 
getting the story under way. 

2. Then tell in the time order what happened. The keynote of 
narration is action. 

3. Keep the point, exciting moment, climax, or surprise till 
near the end. 

4. Conclude briefly, or omit the conclusion. 

5. Add life to the narrative by using the exact words of the 
speakers. Indirect discourse is tiresome. Avoid, however, re¬ 
peating he said. Either search for a word that tells how the person 
spoke— whispered, shrieked, hissed, crooned, cried, asserted, pro¬ 
tested, declared, contended, roared, argued, insisted, blurted out, 
shouted, stammered, maintained, or muttered, for example—or if 
the introductory words are not needed to make clear who the 
speaker is, omit them. 

6. Picture the characters and places and let the reader know the 


306 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


feelings of the characters. Place the events before the reader as 
he would have seen them had he been present. In other words, 
do not merely report what happened; dramatize the experience so 
that it will become a living word picture. 

7. Make the story move swiftly. Boil down. Cross out words, 
phrases, and sentences not necessary to picture the setting and 
actors, characterize the actors, or advance the action. Omit the 
obvious and unnecessary. Readers expect something to happen. 
If you are writing on “Landing a Big Fish,” do not tell that you 
got up, washed your face, combed your hair, and ate breakfast. 
Tell very briefly, or not at all, about riding to the lake, procuring 
bait, hiring a boat, and rowing to the east end of the lake, unless 
something unusual happened. When you reach the climax how¬ 
ever, tell every detail, but make these details contribute directly 
to one speciflc and important effect. 

8. Choose the accurate, specific, suggestive, picture-making 
words of lively conversation, not vague, general, abstract, bookish 
ones. Food, a girl, my friend, and a hoy are not half so interesting 
as roast leg of lamb and fresh green peas, ice cream and angel food, 
wee Willie Brooks, or Andy Leonard, nicknamed Old Gibraltar. 
Use color, sound, and action words; make striking comparisons and 
contrasts. 

Peactice 2 

1. Find ten substitutes for said not mentioned in suggestion 5. 

2. Go is a general word; run, walk, fly, scamper, waddle, hurry, stagger, 
lurch, dodge, swagger, limp, dance, crawl, race, flit, march, stalk, stride, slide, 
glide, roll, shoot, wander, pace up and down, ramble, stroll, saunter, straggle, 
gad, trudge, tramp, strut, bowl along, toddle, paddle, trot, prance, canter, 
amble, gallop, frisk, roam, prowl, plod, skate, and promenade are more 
specific and call up vivid pictures. For each of the following general 
words write as many specific words as you can: weapon, person, dog, tree, 
sound (noun), building, ask, get, work (verb), do, change, eat, contend, look, 
hurt. 

3. Are there irrelevant details in the following story? Is the intro¬ 
duction vivid? Are the words used specific or general? Does the story 
as a whole grip you? Would you call this a still photograph or a moving 
picture? Explain your answer and illustrate it by reference to other 
selections which you have read. 


NARRATION 


307 


THE BATTLE OF SNAKES 

While visiting my cousin in Little Rock, Arkansas, about four years 
ago, I had the pleasure of witnessing a battle between two snakes. 

My cousin and I packed our lunches one morning and started on an 
all day hike in the Smoky District, about five miles northeast of Little 
Rock. This area has a hazy atmosphere and is in a valley about three 
miles long and a half to one mile wide. Huge outcroppings of rock 
border this valley, and it is said to be the home of different varieties of 
snakes. 

We were leaning back against the base of one of these large outcrop¬ 
pings of stone, eating our lunch and resting. All at once we were startled 
by a great commotion in some vines about forty feet from us. We 
remained motionless as two snakes came threshing out of the vines. A 
diamond back rattler about five feet in length and a king snake some¬ 
what larger were having a duel to death. The rattler struck repeatedly^ 
and the other, like a prize-fighter, kept weaving to and fro to escape 
the vicious head that was constantly darting at him, but all the while 
creeping closer to his enemy. When only about two feet separated the 
combatants, the rattler coiled and struck. He missed and landed upon 
his foe. Like a flash of lightning the king snake had his enemy in a 
crushing grip and slowly squeezed him to death. He finally released his 
victim, and, with his head raised about a foot above his fallen foe, gave 
a final hiss and glided off among the rocks.— Pupil’s Theme 


Peactice 3 

CRITICISM OF TWO THEMES 

1. Does the introduction in each of these themes answer defi¬ 
nitely the questions, ‘‘Who?” “When?” “Where?” “What?” 
Is curiosity excited or interest aroused in each? How? Has sus¬ 
pense been employed throughout the selections? How? Is it 
effective? 

2. Has each theme sufficient action? 

3. Has each theme a climax? If so, explain how the various 
elements in each have combined to make this climax. 

4. How long is the conclusion of each? What quahties should 
be present in a conclusion? Do you find all these qualities here? 
Discuss. 


308 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


5. What use is made of direct discourse? 

6. Have the writers pictured the actors or places of the inci¬ 
dents? What pictures do you get from the themes? 

7. Would boiling down improve the themes? Why? 

8. Does each paragraph deal with a separate part of the narra¬ 
tive? Prove. 

9. Select well-chosen words and well-written phrases and 
sentences. 

10. What is the chief merit and a defect of each? , 

1. FRIED FROGS^ EGGS 

Behind our house at Lake Placid stretched a small ridge, on the other 
side of which was a large basin-like hollow which brother Phil and I knew 
as the Old Pond. Here, when the snow melted, and the pond became a 
reality, came innumerable frogs and toads to sing “Welcome, Sweet 
Springtime.’^ On the edge of the Old Pond we had built a sturdy pioneer’s 
cabin and an outdoor fireplace, in which we were sometimes allowed to 
roast potatoes and make cornmeal mush. 

One spring day, when I was about eight years old, Phil watched mother 
fry some eggs. Suddenly a beautiful expression, which always meant 
mischief, appeared on his face. With a sweet smile for mother he bounded 
to the door, beckoning mysteriously to me. Always ready to follow his 
lead, I soon joined him to hear the original proposal: “Come on, sis, let’s 
get some frogs’ eggs and fry ’em. Then we’ll get Bob Wood to try ’em 
first. If they don’t make him sick, we’ll fry some more and eat ’em 
ourselves.” 

Of course, I thought the idea wonderful, and we started for the pond. 
Phil made a fire, then went and “borrowed” one of mother’s pie tins while 
I secured the frogs’ eggs. As it turned out, I had the worst of the bargain. 
The log on which I was standing suddenly rolled over, throwing me head¬ 
long into the slimy water. A great experiment was to be made, however; 
so I paid no attention to my discomfort. 

When the eggs were fried, they had a very unappetizing look; but, 
nothing daunted, we called to Bob and generously offered him the first 
taste. He looked at the dish displayed so temptingly, and said his mother 
didn’t like him to eat eggs. We pleaded and threatened, but to no avail— 
he had suddenly become very anxious to obey his mother. Finally we 
lost patience. Phil then sat on Bob and I prepared to feed him the eggs. 
But our experiment was never completed, for the screams of the victim 
brought our mother to his rescue. 

The rest of the episode is still too painful a memory for words, for 


NARRATION 309 

mother knew very well just how much a switch of wild cherry stings when 
applied with the proper degree of intensity.— Pupil’s Theme 

2. LITTLE CURIOSITY 

Wherever there is a two-year-old boy, there is sure to be trouble. I 
know, for our family has been blessed (or shall I say cursed?) with one of 
these mischievous, but lovable, specimens of childhood. 

Like all babies, being anxious to know the world and all that is therein, 
Carl investigates everything. My poor little sister has shed many tears 
when Carl has poked in her doll’s eyes in order to see how it went to sleep. 
Dick, with all the rough authority that a boy has over a small brother, 
often loudly commands our little despot to relinquish the cherished bugle. 
Mother, on occasions when she misses curtain rods, knows that Carl 
is probably playing soldier with them. The cat suffers agonies when baby 
appears, for he knows that his tail will be pulled by Carl, who wishes to 
discover whether it is permanently attached. There is a saying that 
curiosity once killed a cat. Curiosity very nearly caused baby’s downfall. 

One day when he was searching through the pots and pans, Carl 
chanced upon a two-piece cake pan. This was one in which the center 
lifted out, leaving a pan with no bottom. Here was a piece of luck! 
How was it he had never seen it before? After having rolled it about the 
floor for a few minutes, little Curiosity decided that this sport was rather 
duU. Looking carefully around to be sure that mother’s vigilant eye was 
relaxed, Carl placed the pan over his head. Next he went in search of a 
mirror, evidently wishing to see how this new headpiece became him. 
Soon he tired of this, too. What must have been his terror when he dis¬ 
covered that the pan refused to come off I Babe did the natural thing— 
he cried. 

Mother, frantic with fear, ran to the scene. All her efforts to pull it 
off were in vain. She had despaired of ever getting the pan off by pulling, 
and was seriously considering taking the child to a tinsmith, when the 
beU rang. Carl, his natural curiosity conquering fear, ran to the door to 
see who it was. It proved to be the milkman, who after nearly killing 
himself with laughter used his strong hands, but to no avail. Meanwhile, 
a truck from Abraham and Straus’s came with a package. It is to the 
ingenious mind of the driver that we owe mother’s sanity and baby’s 
head. Taking out a knife, he cut little slits into the inside of the pan. 
These he bent up, thereby making the opening wider. Mother thanked 
him profusely and sent him away with her blessing.— ^Pupil’s Theme 

Pkactice 4 

Using one of the following subjects or any other title, write an 
entertaining account of an experience of yours. When revising, 


310 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


test your narrative by the eight rules. Don’t embellish; tell the 
truth. 

1. My most embarrassing moment. 2. I would have been a hero if—. 

3. A curious, exciting, thrilling, amusing, or unpleasant experience. 

4. A tragedy of childhood. 5. A close call. 6. My lucky day. 7. My 
unlucky day. 8. When I was cook. 9. A midnight adventure. 10. Too 
late. 11. The play that won the game. 12. Unprepared. 13. Locked 
out, 14. Why I almost believe in ghosts. 15. The haunted house. 
16. Gypsies. 17. In the hands of the law. 18. A night in the woods. 
19. A runaway. 20. Amateur doctoring. 21. Second best. 22. A 



Courtesy of the German Tourist Information Office 

A Mighty Ski Jump in the Bavarian Alps 


punishment I deserved. 23. A rescue. 24. How I earned some money. 
25. When mother was away. 26. What I saw on the way to school. 
27. Excess ambition. 28. Life’s darkest moment. 29. A narrow escape. 
30. When the car broke down. 31. One dark night. 32. My pet aver¬ 
sion. 33. When the canoe upset. 34. A bear? 35. Groundhog (or 
rabbit) hunting. 36. Talk about burglars! 37. While reading a thrilling 
mystery. 38. A driving lesson. 39. A first experience—night in a tent, 
business venture, trout, dive, or the like. 

Pkactice 5 

Tell entertainingly of a thrilling moment, of a spectacular, unusual, or 
effective play in a game you have seen, or of five minutes of an exciting 





NARRATION 


311 


game. Try to make your word picture as vivid as the snapshots of a 
mighty ski jump and of a football play. 

Rapid Writing 

The theme called ^‘The Most Exciting Ride I Ever Had’’ was 
written in class in a half-hour without any chance to prepare or 
rewrite. Writing preceded by thorough preparation and followed 
by intelligent, careful revision prepares for writing essays, articles, 
stories, advertisements, and important letters. Quick, accurate, 
correct writing with little or no revision prepares for dictating 
and writing friendly letters, bulletins, and newspaper stories. 

Practice 6 

1. Do you like the introduction of the following theme? Why? 

2. Are colors, odor, sound, touch, or sight suggested? Where? 

3. What was the feehng of the writer? Does she communicate 
her feeling to the reader? If so, how? 

4. What vivid pictures are there in the narrative? 

5. Point out action words and picture-making words. 

THE MOST EXCITING RIDE I EVER HAD 

It was a cold, dark day. My cousin said to me, “Do you remember 
what I promised you?” Immediately I shouted back affirmatively, and 
he told me to get ready. In fifteen minutes we were at the Dayton Air¬ 
port. The plane had been “warming up” for fully ten minutes, with the 
same steady buzzing. Finally it was wheeled out of the hangar and we 
clambered in with our flying togs on. The motor raced and we started 
off on our second airplane ride. 

The ride was the most exciting I had ever experienced. To think that 
we were flying at the height of two thousand feet above a city at a terrific 
speed of over one hundred miles per hour! 

To our left was one of the most unusual sunsets I have ever seen. It 
was a beautiful red, intermingled with a royal purple. This seems like 
a very odd sight for a dark day, but it could be seen very plainly from 
the upper air. Far below us was the road, now merely a tiny thread 
with ant-like cars racing busily along, unaware who was in the plane 
overhead. I was enjoying everything extremely well when suddenly we 


312 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 



Courtesy of the Southern Pacific Railroad 

A Bucking Broncho 














NARRATION 


313 


bolted downward like a flying comet. The feeling was like that felt on a 
roller-coaster, except that one could not see the end of the downward 
slope approaching. I was thinking what I presumed would be my last 
thought when the nose of the plane rose, we “leveled off’’ and came to a 
perfect three-point landing, thus ending the most exciting ride I have 
ever had.— Pupil’s Theme 

Practice 7 

Write in a half-hour a truthful, lively, entertaining narrative on the 
subject “The Most Exciting Ride I Ever Had.” Perhaps you rode on a 
sled, a pony, a raft, a hay wagon, a horse, a mule, a cow, a camel, an 
elephant, an engine, or a bicycle, or in a taxi, a freight car, a day coach, 
a Pullman, a canoe, a rowboat, a catboat, an ice boat, a motor boat, a 
buggy, an airplane, a dirigible, a street car, a sleigh, or an automobile. 

Clearness, Sincerity, Sentence Variety 

Clearness, sincerity, and sentence variety are three major 
virtues of a narrative. 

Practice 8 

The following account of a trip was considered good enough for 
publication in a high-school magazine. What do you think of it? 
What are its merits? Its defects? Is it clear? Are the sentences 
varied? Prove. 

OUR VISIT TO THE BLUE GROTTO 

On our second day on the island of Capri, father, sister Marion, and 
I wished to visit the famous Blue Grotto. Our Italian guide told us that 
the sea was far too rough to make the trip by boat. Seeing our disap¬ 
pointed looks, he added that about two miles distant there was a foot¬ 
path leading down to the grotto, which we could take if we did not mind 
a hard climb. Accordingly we set out in carriages over a very rocky road 
leading under high cliffs and overhanging trees. 

At last we arrived at our destination, and dismounted at the head of 
the path, where our driver waited for us. Before we had gone far, how¬ 
ever, we discovered that the “footpath” was in reality a sheep trail, 
leading in many places along the edge of cliffs and marshy ground. In 
some places walking was impossible, but we overcame this difficulty by 
sitting down and coasting. To make the path even more perilous, the 
rain began to pour down violently. As it was too late to turn back, we 
slid on, without umbrellas or raincoats, not caring how wet or muddy 
we got. 

How we reached the bottom nobody knew. Nevertheless we finally 


314 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


found ourselves looking at the entrance of the Blue Grotto itself. This 
was by no means a cheerful sight to those wishing to go in, it being merely 
a narrow hole about two feet high, which every rising wave completely 
filled. This caused father and Marion to lose interest, but, as I insisted 
on seeing the inside, our guide called one of the waiting boats and placed 
me in it, telling me to lie down and on no condition to raise my head until 
through the hole. 

Then the two boatmen rowed out in front of the entrance, and on the 
downward wave sent the boat forward by means of a quick pull on an 
iron chain fastened to the rock, and, throwing themselves back, skillfully 
shot the boat through. Inside, the water was as calm as a mill pond; and, 
getting to my feet, I found myself in the most beautiful fairylike place I 
have ever seen. The water, the vaulted roof, the air, and the boat were 
the most intense, deep, transparent blue imaginable, while the fishes in 
the water shone like streaks of silver, and the round entrance appeared 
like a silver moon. The grotto is approximately eighty feet long and 
thirty feet high; the roof is supported by several natural columns. 

After rowing me around in a circle, the men demanded in fierce tones 
“regalo,’’ a tip, which, being alone, I thought it unwise to refuse. We 
then rowed back to the opening and shot out in the same manner as we 
had entered. Seeing me arrive safely, father and Marion became brave, 
or reckless, and entered the boat. 

When they came out of the grotto, we began our perilous ascent of the 
hill. It was still raining, but that made no difference to us, as we were 
already wet and muddy. We plodded on, utterly obhvious of puddles 
and beds of mud, until we reached the top, where we climbed into our 
carriage and drove at breakneck speed up hill and down dale to the little 
hotel. Here we removed our wet and dirty things; and, having no extra 
clothes with us, we all went to bed for the rest of the day, while our gar¬ 
ments were spread over every heater in the house.— Pupil’s Theme 

Practice 9 

Write or speak clearly, sincerely, and entertainingly about a trip that 
you have taken to Ellis Island, the Navy Yard, Mount Vernon, Niagara 
Falls, Washington’s headquarters, Whittier’s birthplace, Longfellow’s 
home, the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, a country, a city, Hollywood, 
the Yosemite Valley, Yellowstone National Park, Mammoth Cave, Luray 
Cave, England, Italy, Germany, Mexico, West Point, Annapolis, a 
woods, a museum, a zoo, a park, a printing office, a department store, 
a mine, a factory, a broadcasting station, a ranch, a flying field, or an¬ 
other place or building interesting historically or otherwise. Vary your 
sentences. 

What characteristics of a good narration does your theme illustrate? 



NARRATION 


315 


Connectives 

Connecting expressions like a few minutes laterj the next weehy 
and when I had waited for a half-hour hold together the parts of the 
narrative when there is a lapse of time. 

Practice 10 

Show that the italicized words and word-groups in the following 
narrative tie together the sentences and paragraphs. 

Model 

This ties together the first two sentences by referring to Neptune Party 
in sentence 1. 

A NEPTUNE PARTY 

1. Occasion 

2. Preparation 

3. Ceremony 

4. Certificate 

Some sea customs come and go, but the Neptune Party of sailing ship 
days is still observed. This ancient ceremony, which is celebrated when 
a ship crosses the equator, consists of an initiation tendered gratis by 
those of the ship’s company who have previously crossed the equator 
to the lubbers who have yet to experience sailing beyond the line. 

The preparations made beforehand include the building of a wooden 
platform about seven feet above the deck, adjacent to which a fifteen-foot 
swimming tank is enclosed in heavy canvas. 

Bright and early on the day during which the equator is to be crossed 
the ceremonies are begun. In Heu of bathing suits, which are barred, 
the lubbers must wear a costume consisting of shirt and trousers. Each 
one in turn steps up to the platform where the Neptune Party (men who 
have been initiated on other voyages) receive them with open arms. 
The doctor of the party gives the lubber a pill ^Tor what ails him,” which 
is a piece of tallow rolled in red pepper. The barber then cuts the lubber’s 
hair with a pair of tinsmith’s scissors. Next comes the beauty specialist 
with his pat of lampblack dissolved in water. The lubber’s face is liberally 
anointed with this fluid, after which he stands forth resplendent, a spotted 
brunette. By this time he is adjudged ready for the grand finale, the 
descent into the tank. This is expeditiously accomplished. He is stood 
against a board, his back to the pool, and an upward heave at the board 
causes his body to perform a striking, if inelegant, parabola into the tank. 
But he does not long enjoy the clean warm water, for stationed in the tank 


316 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


are a number of Neptune Party officials with slats of ample size, which 
they apply powerfully to the lubber’s body to hasten his exit. 

After having passed all his tests, the triumphant lubber receives his 
Neptune Certificate, which states: Know ye, all ye sea serpents, skates, 
pollywogs, and sharks, that this man is now a member of the Royal 
Order of the Deep and as such is a true son of Neptune Rex.— Pupil’s 
Theme 

Practice 11 

Paying particular attention to paragraphing and connecting 
words, entertain the class with an account of an initiation, a 
ceremony, a stunt, a picnic, or a party—your first party, a dinner 
party, a beach party, a corn roast, a school picnic, a masquerade 
party, a surprise party, a class or club party, an unusual party. 

Audience 

When we write anything—a letter, a story, an essay, an argu¬ 
ment, for example—we should see the readers for whom it is in¬ 
tended and think what their reactions will be as they read. 

Practice 12 

1. For people of what age were the following stories written? What 
makes you think so? 

2. How is conversation paragraphed? 

3. How is conversation punctuated and capitalized? 

4. How has the writer avoided repeating said? 

THE NAMES OF AN ELF 

Judy closed her book with a sigh. She had been looking at the illus¬ 
trations of a large and beautiful picture book, full of fairies and elves. 

“Wish I could read,” she murmured drowsily. Then turning her head, 
she beheld the queerest thing. A tiny little creature was sitting on the 
arm of her chair and looking thoughtfully at her. The creature had soft 
black hair and eyes and very rosy cheeks. He had two long pointed ears 
to show that he was an elf. 

“Why,” cried Judy delightedly, “you’re an elf, aren’t you?” 

The elf nodded gravely. 

“What’s your name?” she next inquired. 

“My name?” repeated the elf. “My name? We-ell-er,” scratching 
his head meditatively, “you want to know my name? Dear, dear, what 
is my name?” 


NARRATION 


317 


“You don’t know your name?” cried the astonished Judith. 

“0-o-oh! Yes, yes, yes, I have it now. Yes, yes. My name is Rudy, 
today. Short for Rudolpho, you know.” 

“Your name today,” repeated Judith. “Do you change your name 
every day?” 

“No-no, not every day, but about once a week, just for variety, you 
know,” answered the elf. “I have had many names, but I can remember 
only fifty-seven and the first letter of another one. Why, you don’t 
have the same name all the time, do you? You do! How can you stand 
it? You must be exceedingly tired of being called the same thing all the 
time, aren’t you?” 

“M-m-m,” said Judy doubtfully. She hadn’t the slightest idea what 
“exceedingly” meant, but she wouldn’t have asked Rudy for the world. 

“Well, call me sump’n different, then,” she said. “What do you think 
would be nice?” 

“Doreen or Dorinda would be lively for a child of your age,” replied 
the elf seriously. “Possibly Letitia.” 

Judy opened her eyes wider. 

“Ye-es, but I guess I’ll keep Judith for a while yet. I’ve only been 
called it for five years and I stfil have time, haven’t I?” she inquired, the 
last rather anxiously. 

“Oh, yes,” said the elf patronizingly, “you have plenty of time.” 

“Do all elves have so many names?” she asked after a short silence. 

“Well, no, not aU elves have so many names. It all depends on how 
high up you live. We live in the top of the second highest tree in Elfland, 
so our family have next to the most names. The royal family have the 
most, of course.” 

“And what do you do with all of them?” inquired Judy. 

“Why, on affairs of state we are called by as many as can be remem¬ 
bered. ^^enever we play a game or do something like that, we go in the 
order of the length of our names. But hark!” 

“What?” 

“I hear the horns of Elfland blowing, and I had better hurry because 
I have to get the lilac nectar and ambrosia for supper.” 

And spreading his rainbow-colored wings, he flew away.— Pupil’s 
Theme 


BOARDING HOUSE MOUSE 

I had what I consider a severe test of my self control the other night. 
I had often admired heroes in books who were perfectly nonchalant 
under all circumstances, but I had never had a real occasion to prove my 
own powers in this line. 

My day had passed much as usual. I walked up the stairs in my 


318 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


boarding house, and after fumbling for my key, opened my door. I 
hung up my coat and hat when I first entered the room and then turned 
to behold on my bureau a grey mouse. 

He was looking at himself in the mirror and running his claws through 
his white whiskers. He looked as if he were a rather elderly gentleman 
who had had a full life out in the world and had decided to spend the 
rest of his days in a quiet boarding house. I could not help noticing his 
resemblance to a gentleman who lived on the floor above me. He seemed 
to take great pride in his personal appearance, since he had not even 
noticed my entrance, so engrossed was he in looking at himself. He 
looked like one of those bachelors, who, as Artemus Ward says, do not die 
peacefully as do married men but seem to “rot away like a pollywog’s 
tail.” 

I cleared my throat hesitantly and he glanced around. Seeing me he 
turned and sat regarding me much as I had been watching him a moment 
before. 

“Ah, good evening,” I said politely. 

“Good evening,” he replied with equal gravity. 

“Do you find it a bit chilly in here?” I inquired. 

“Yes, I do,” he answered. “I was just wondering when you would 
come in and turn on the register. I seem to notice the cold this winter 
more than in previous ones.” 

I adjusted the register and settled down in my chair. “Have you been 
away this summer?” I asked. 

“My dear sir,” he replied, “I have never been outside of this house in 
my life.” 

“But you look as if you had seen a great deal of life,” I rejoined, 
rather surprised. 

“Quite so,” declared the mouse, “and if people would take notice of 
their immediate surroundings instead of going travelling all over the 
world they would learn a great deal more about life. In this one board¬ 
ing house there are all classes of people, only, instead of the highest 
class being at the top, we start at the first floor and work up. On the 
first floor, here, are the Goldsteins. They have the whole floor to them¬ 
selves. Really, sir, the cheese in their pantry is the best it has ever 
been my pleasure to eat. The second floor is divided into apartments. 
The cheese on the second floor is very good, indeed. The grade of cheese 
and the financial status of the occupants decrease as you go up. The 
young student on the top floor has such poor cheese that I was ill for 
two days after I ate it.” 

“It does seem that one may come in contact with many types of 
people in this very building,” I said, “but you do not see the life of 
other countries, do you?” 


NARRATION 


319 


“There is a French family on the third floor and a Spanish one on the 
fifth,” he hastened to say, “so I have learned something of the language 
and customs of these two countries. Of course, I don’t think that you 
can get all of the advantages of travelling at home but if people would 
just look about them they would learn much of human nature.” 

“You do seem to have thought and observed a great deal about life,” 
I agreed, in return. 

“Yes,” he said, “but the time has come when I prefer a cosy nest 
and a bit of cheese to any study of philosophy.” 

He soon left, and after he had gone I sat thinking about what he had 
told me until I fell asleep in my chair. I feel that I should like to talk 
to him again, but I fear he is too old to do much visiting.— Pupil’s Theme 

Practice 13 

Write a ghost, a mystery, or a fairy story, an original myth, or a 
story in which animals talk, to read aloud to younger pupils. De¬ 
cide first what grade you will write for. Strive for natural conver¬ 
sation, and paragraph and punctuate the conversation correctly. 
Substitute specific words for said. Omit the introducing words 
when they are not needed. 


CHAPTER XV 


DESCRIPTION 

Brevity and Accuracy 

The best description is short and accurate. No one, Flaubert 
tells us, can write an effective description more than half a printed 
page in length. Faguet says, ^^However considerable M. Valois’s 
nose was, a whole page devoted to its description is, I confess, too 
much for me.” 

The following brief word picture is worth more than a vague or 
confusing description twice as long. 

HER FIRST REAL DOLL 

I had just given a little poor girl her first real doll. Upon the child’s 
face was an expression of absolute joy as she clapped her hands with 
delight. She hugged the doll very tightly; then held it off to see it better, 
uttering little gurgles and coos of delight as she found each new attraction. 
Her eyes were as big as stars and danced continually. When I left her, 
she was kissing the doll’s waxen face.— ^Pupil’s Theme 

Word Pictures and Snapshots or Paintings 

If all short stories and novels were profusely and accurately 
illustrated, contemporary writers could eliminate many of the 
sentence and paragraph descriptions in which they picture the 
characters and the setting. To help the reader to see the charac¬ 
ters, the setting, and the action, the story-teller does with words 
what is often better done with a camera or paint. From a vivid 
description, however, one gets a mental picture similar to that 
gained by looking at a snapshot or a painting. 

Sensation 

Do not confuse picturing and explaining. To paint a vivid word 
picture of an object or scene, it is necessary to suggest to another 

320 


DESCRIPTION 


321 


how the thing strikes the eye or ear. Occasionally we describe 
also what we touch, smell, or taste. These five senses furnish all 
descriptive material, for description has as its subject matter 
sensations. The statement, ^‘Toto the clown is a serious sort of 
man off the stage,’’ does not belong in a description of bim as a 
clown. The sentence, ^‘Her face is swarthy, because she has just 
returned from a month’s vacation at Asbury Park,” is only half 
description. The subordinate clause explains why she is sun¬ 
burned instead of telling what the writer sees. 

Observation and Words 

The two common causes of failure in descriptive writing are 
lack of observation and lack of words with which to express what 
is seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or felt. To paint a vivid word 
picture one must have a clear and accurate mental picture and a 
command of descriptive nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. 
Search out verbs and nouns that picture and thus avoid piling up 
descriptive adjectives. 

To observe is to look carefully at the details and to fix them in 
the mind. The average person can’t describe accurately from 
memory his breakfast table, his home, his living room, the face 
of his watch, or the faces of the members of his family. Before 
attempting to paint a word picture see and note details of color, 
size, and shape as an artist observes these while he is painting. 

Figures of Speech and Comparisons 

For vividness use figures of speech and comparisons. If you 
wish to describe an animal your hearers or readers have never 
seen, compare it with an animal they have seen. Stevenson 
calls sea lions ^Tuge slimy monsters—soft snails, as it were, of 
incredible bigness—^two or three score of them together, making 
the rocks to echo with their barkings.” A comparison presents a 
complete picture to be changed rather than the parts of a picture 
to be put together. 


322 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 







DESCRIPTION 


323 


Practice 1 

1. Add to each of the following lists. Perhaps you remember an 
expressive descriptive adjective used by Dickens, Thackeray, Poe, 
Hawthorne, Kipling, Stevenson, or another writer. 

Eyes—snappy, staring, twinkling, almond-shaped, baggy, puffy, soul¬ 
ful, sad, piercing, keen, glassy, hazel, deep-set, bulging, vacant, protrud¬ 
ing, wistful, expressionless, laughing, bright, searching, fiery, mischievous, 
bewitching, dancing, dreamy, dark and melancholy. 

Nose—stubby, aquiline, Roman, Grecian, pug, thick, sharp, hooked, 
button, crooked. 

Hair—golden, flaxen, glossy, stubborn, spiky, kinky, auburn, shaggy, 
silvery, scraggly, wavy, abundant, wiry, silky, fluffy, snarly, disheveled, 
unkempt. 

Face—^haggard, wan, happy, ghastly, discontented, flushed, drawn, 
ruddy, bloated, oval, smooth-shaven, palhd, impassive, plump, pleasant, 
droll, jolly, beaming, expressive, sober. 

Voice—^musical, rasping, grating, mellow, melodious, husky, resonant, 
gruff, shrill, nasal, rough, squeaky, hoarse, breathy, penetrating, quaver¬ 
ing, cultivated, refined, monotonous, harsh, throaty, well-modulated. 

Hands—^brawny, callous, clammy, clumsy, plump, grimy, muscular, 
nervous, chubby, horny. 

Dress or clothing—threadbare, flashy, immaculate, shabby, baggy, 
becoming, conspicuous, flimsy, fluffy, gaudy, summery. 

Walk—^military, graceful, brisk, stiff, ungainly, awkward. 

2. Prepare lists of words to describe the chin, the teeth, the 
body, and the general appearance. 

3. For each of the following verbs or word-groups find five or 
more specific, picture-making equivalents: he inactive, he active, 
speak, walk, sleep, work, hasten, eject, depart, make a noise. 

Model 

Be inactive—lounge, loaf, loiter, loll, lag, dawdle, vegetate, let the grass 
grow under one’s feet, kill time, burn daylight, sleep at one’s post, swim 
with the stream. 

Practice 2 

Pick out the effective descriptive words, comparisons, and figures 
.of speech in the following sentences: 

1. He was a scraggly bearded individual in a ragged shirt, which offered 
glimpses of a hairy chest in need of soap.— Henry Sydnor Harrison 


324 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


2. His voice was like a buzz saw striking a rusty nail.— Folwell 

3. Captain Cunningham was a great/florid, burly, drunken brute, not 
less than sixty years old.—S. Weir Mitchell 

4. He had a strongly cut face and a soft, purring voice. 

5. The moaning and howling of the wind outside served to emphasize 
the coziness and security of our kitchen. 

6. The film moves along with the sweeping speed of an overfed cater¬ 
pillar .—New York Evening Post 

7. Love is a breath of fresh air from the highest Heaven brought some¬ 
how into the stuffy cellar of our existence.— De Morgan 

8. He was a fat, amiable, seedy, down-at-heels looking man. 

9. They were led up a corkscrew staircase to a squat-ceilinged closet 
lit by the arched top of a high window, the lower panes of which served 
for the floor below.— Edith Wharton 

10. With the cold raindrops merrily trickling down our backs, we paddle 
along, entertained by the steady squish-squosh of our rubbers. 

11. On her mouth is a smug, self-satisfied, conceited smile. 

12. His face looked as if it were one freckle, ^nd his pug nose loomed 
up handsomely between a pair of roguishly blue eyes. 

13. Just above my head I saw a lone gull, lazily circling out to sea, 
swooping down now and then to dip in the cool green of the waves. 

14. His Pegasus, being most unruly, always refused to work when 
bidden, curveting and rearing, kicking over the traces, usually ending by 
galloping over the hills and far away.— Mrs. T. B. Aldrich 

15. He was as serious as a postman in a blizzard. 

16. The rat-faced agent and the brass-throated, bull-necked politician 
were friends. 

17. Meanwhile, paunchy with wind and wetness, unmannerly clouds 
came smoking out of the blackened west.— ^Tarkington 

18. The whole sky fell down on her and overwhelmed her in choking 
folds of night, and there was not a gleam anywhere.— ^Bennett 

19. His laugh was like the creaking of a rusty barn door. 

20. The ticking of the clock, the soft footsteps of the teacher in charge 
of the examination, the clinking of the pens as they strike the inkwells, 
and a shufile of feet from time to time are the only sounds to break the 
absolute silence. 

Practice 3 

In a sentence for each, picture twelve of the following. In each 
case write about an individual, not a class. Draw one line under 
vivid descriptive words and two lines under comparisons. 

1. An animal. 2. A boy. 3. A girl. 4. A man. 5. A woman. 6. The 
palm of a hand. 7. The back of a hand. 8. A water scene. 9. A house. 


DESCRIPTION 


325 



Marlowe and Sothern in “Twelfth Night'’ 






326 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


10. A landscape. 11. An ice wagon. 12. An automobile. 13. A barn. 
14. A voice. 15. A textbook. 16. A room. 17. A mouth. 18. A face. 
19. A dress. 20. A suit. 21. A bird. 22. Eyes. 23. Hair. 24. A 
storm. 25. A laugh. 26. The coloring of autumn woods. 27. The ap¬ 
pearance of winter woods. 28. Sounds heard in winter woods. 29. A 
cloud. 30. A tree. 31. A nest. 32. An ant hill. 


How to Picture 

(Suggestions 1 and 7 are discussed earlier in the chapter.) 

1. Observe. Flaubert says, ^‘Study an object till its essential 
difference from every other is perceived and can be rendered in 
words.” The ‘^seeing eye” and the ‘‘hearing ear” are the founda¬ 
tion of all good description. 

2. Describe from a favorable poii\t of view. No one sets up his 
camera and snaps pictures at random. A word painter commonly 
makes clear at the outset from what point he is viewing the room, 
building, or landscape. He may, for example, say, “When we had 
clambered over the last steep rocks to the summit of Whiteface, 
we sat down to rest and looked first towards the St. Lawrence 
River,” and then picture what he saw from that point. A snap¬ 
shot of a home taken at noonday from the middle of the street 
or road in front of it is quite different from a picture of it at dusk 
or by moonlight from a point a half mile distant. 

When, as in the description of a town or the exterior of a house 
or school, the point of view is changed, notify the readers of the 
shift. In “Westminster Abbey,” Irving shows a change of point 
of view in the following sentence: “From Poet’s Corner I continued 
my stroll towards that part of the abbey which contains the 
sepulchers of the kings.” 

d. As a rule, present first such a picture or impression as one 
would get from a glance at the object. The passenger on an express 
train, for example, notices the size, shape, and color of the build¬ 
ings he passes. This framework on which the picture is built is 
called the fundamental image. 

4. Decide whether ifou wish just to take a snapshot or, like most 
artists, emphasize a central idea or feeling, called an impression. 



DESCRIPTION 327 

The description of an office may produce the impression of neat¬ 
ness, untidiness, prosperity, system, or confusion. 

5. Decide how many and what details will make your picture 
most vivid. Select the most striking, interesting, or significant 
features. If you present every detail observed, you may weary 
the reader or hearer and also puzzle him, because he will be unable 
to hold the parts of the picture in mind long enough to put them 
together. The picture in his mind will resemble a cut-up picture 
of which some pieces have been lost. In an impressionistic de¬ 
scription select the details that give the idea or feeling desired. If 
you are describing an imtidy schoolroom in which the books on 
one desk are neatly arranged, either picture this desk as a contrast 
with the rest of the room, or omit it because it does not change 
the impression of untidiness produced by the room. 

6. Arrange details in the order of observation. The first detail 
observed is the most striking or unusual one. After especially 
, striking details have been presented, the order of observation is 
commonly the space order: foreground to background, top to 
bottom, center to circumference, or right to left. 

Pkactice 4 

What are the details in this picture? In what order are they 
presented? Why was this order used? 

THE COACHMAN 

He has commonly a broad, full face, curiously mottled with red, as if 
the blood had been forced by hard feeding into every vessel of the skin; 
he is swelled into jolly dimensions by frequent potations of malt liquors, 
and his bulk is still further increased by a multiplicity of coats, in which he 
is buried like a cauliflower, the upper one reaching to his heels. He wears 
a broad-brimmed, low-crowned hat; a large roll of colored handkerchief 
about his neck, knowingly knotted and tucked in at the bosom; and has 
in summer-time a large bouquet of flowers in his button-hole; the present, 
most probably, of some enamored country lass. His waistcoat is com¬ 
monly of some bright color, striped, and his small-clothes extend far 
below the knees, to meet a pair of jockey-boots which reach about half 
way up his legs.— ^Washington Irving 


328 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Practice 5 

Arrange these details for pictures: 

(1) Roof, foundation, attic window, front entrance, chimney, other 
windows, front porch, entrance walk, front lawn, flower box on front 
porch, evergreens in front of house, elm tree near front porch. 

(2) Hat, shoes, nose, socks, face, trousers, hair, ears, collar, coat, 
necktie, mouth, face, spectacles. 

7. For vividness use picture-making nounsj verbs, adjectives, and 
adverbs, figures of speech, and comparisons. Avoid overworked 
general words such as nice, fine, lovely, wonderful, grand, and 
interesting. Use very and superlatives sparingly. ‘‘He is honest’^ 
is stronger than “He is very honest’^ or “He is most honest.^^ 

8. Use connectives. Such phrases as on the right, on the extreme 
right, just beyond, somewhat lower, in the distance, farther to the left, 
and just in front of help the mind to put the parts of the picture 
together. 

9. When possible, describe in action. For pure description the 
action should be hmited to a moment. Commonly, however, the 
short story and the novel, like the moving picture, combine story 
and picture so closely and effectively that it is both difficult and 
useless to separate the description from the narration. 

10. End the description with a salient detail or with an effective 
statement of the central feeling or impression. 

Practice 6 

In a book you are reading or studying find two vivid descriptions. Pre¬ 
pare to read them to the class and to show how the author has made his 
word pictures effective. 

Portrait Painting 

Practice 7 

DISCUSSION OF FOUR DESCRIPTIONS 

1. What evidence of keen observation is there in each de¬ 
scription? 

2. Does the writer give first the fimdamental image or central 
impression? 


description 329 

3. Is the description a snapshot or an impressionistic picture? 
Prove. 

4. What details are introduced in each description? Are there 
so few details that the picture lacks vividness? Are there so many 
as to weary or confuse? 

5. How are the details arranged? Is a better arrangement 
possible? 

6. What connectives are used? Are others needed? 

7. What vivid descriptive words, figures of speech, or com¬ 
parisons are made use of? What words report sensations, tell 
what the writer saw, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted? What 
picture-making verbs are used? 

8. Has the author described the character in action? If so, 
is the action limited to a moment? 

9. How does each end? 

10. If you were a judge in a pupil description contest, to which 
of the three young writers would you give the first prize? Why?; 

1. ICHABOD CRANE 

The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person. He was 
tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, 
hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served 
for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head 
was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a 
long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weathercock perched upon his 
spindle neck, to tell which way the wind blew. To see him striding along 
the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering 
about him, one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descend¬ 
ing upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield.— ^Washing¬ 
ton Irving 

2. FULL DRESS 

A soldier in the full-dress uniform of the Royal Guard to the Bang of 
Denmark is in uniform indeed. His trousers are of a light blue, with 
white stripes flanking the sides. His coat, the center of attraction, is a 
bright vermilion, just about the color of newly spilt blood. The buttons 
decorating the coat are of bright, polished silver. His sword hangs on his 
left side suspended on a white leather strap crossing his right shoulder. 
To top it all, he carries on his head a hat. Imagine an elongated bearskin 


330 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


muff turned upside down, and you have it. This is firmly secured to his 
head by a very smart silver chin strap. 

He is a dazzling and impressive sight on a bright, sunny day. As he 
marches goose-step to the stirring martial music, small boys look at him 
with intermingled awe, envy, and admiration. “What more could one 
wish,” think they, “than to be a member of the Royal Guard to the 
King of Denmark and march through the streets in full-dress uniform?” 
—Pupil’s Theme 

3. AN OLD MEXICAN WOMAN 

One summer day in an alley of a small town in New Mexico, I chanced 
upon an old Mexican woman seated upon the edge of a porch. Although 
the day was warm, she wore a heavy black dress and even had a shawl 
thrown over her head and around her bent shoulders. Her dark face 
was wrinkled and deeply lined. Scraggly wisps of hair escaped from 
under the shawl. In bony, claw-like fingers she was rolling a cigarette. 
As I passed, she glanced up and looked at me resentfully out of deep- 
sunken eyes. What had been her past? At one time had she been 
beautiful? Had life been cruel to her? I could not see into her life; all 
that was visible to me was an old hag rolling a cigarette.— Pupil’s Theme 

4. A TIRED LABORER 

After, I had read all the advertisements on the sides of the Elevated, 
my bored gaze encountered on the floor a most interesting pair of mas¬ 
culine feet. The laced shoes were exceedingly large and altogether dis¬ 
reputable, being artistically spattered with plaster and mud and almost 
entirely innocent of laces. One foot was crossed over the other in such a 
despondent and literally weary fashion that I immediately knew that the 
owner must have worked hard all day. Just above a short expanse of 
soiled white socks, the threadbare trousers with clumsy patches here and 
there to break up the monotony began and stretched away over veritable 
miles of legs. Next came a broad expanse of khaki shirt with a little 
black bow tie at the throat like an oasis in a desert. Then I slowly raised 
my eyes and beheld a head so vividly and hopelessly red that for a mo¬ 
ment all I could think of was a boiled lobster. The eyes were a deep blue, 
peculiarly piercing and intense, although the heavy lids were partly closed 
with fatigue. An air of great weariness seemed to surround the man as he 
sprawled in his seat, his great head bowed upon his chest and his slender, 
tanned hands hanging inert between the sharp knees.— Pupil’s Theme 

Practice 8 

By describing any person whom you have observed or looked at 
attentively, not just looked at, contribute your word picture to 


DESCRIPTION 


331 


the class portrait gallery. One class painted the following por¬ 
traits: 

1. An ancient mountaineer. 2. My music master. 3. A milkman. 
4. My nephew. 5. Our Bobby. 6. Box-car Joe. 7. A mannish woman. 
8. A unique salesman. 9. A chatterer. 10. ^‘Uncle’^ Al. 11. A store¬ 
keeper. 12. A wanderer. 13. A noble old lady. 14. Solemnity. 15. A 
jockey. 16. A beauty expert. 17. A high-school hero. 18. An old- 
timer. 19. An artist. 20. Care-free Mike. 21. An Irish rose. 22. Will 
o’ the wisp. 23. An engineer. 24. My grandfather. 25. A newsboy. 
26. A toy vender. 27. A Pullman porter. 28. The new cook. 29. The 
village philosopher. 

A Building or Structure 

Practice 9 

Describe one of the following for the recognition of the class. 
Do not tell what building you are talking about, but prepare your 
picture so carefully that any person who would recognize a snap¬ 
shot of the building will know what you are describing. As you 
write and revise, apply the description rules. 

1. The library. 2. A railway station. 3. A church. 4. The high- 
school building. 5. The town hall. 6. A statue. 7. The oldest house 
in town. 8. A store. 9. A wigwam. 10. A deserted house. 11. A 
fisherman’s cabin. 12. A seaside cottage. 13. A hotel. 14. A bungalow. 
15. The Lincoln Memorial. 16. The White House. 17. The Congres¬ 
sional Library. 18. The Colosseum. 19. Grant’s Tomb. 20. The Wool- 
worth Building. 21. The Columbia University Library (page 171). 
22. The Swiss peasant home shown in the picture on page 166. 23. An¬ 
other building or structure. 

Sentence Variety 

Practice 10 

1 . In the following description of an old home how many sen¬ 
tences in succession begin with itf How many sentences begin 
with this? With there? Which sentences have something other 
than adjectives before the subject? 

2. How many complex sentences are there in the theme? 
Participles? Infinitives? Appositives? 

3. Which details are pictured? Which are only listed or cata¬ 
loged? 


332 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 



Courtesy of the Swiss Federal Railroads 

A Swiss Peasant Home 

4. What specific, concrete, picture-making nouns, verbs, ad¬ 
jectives, and adverbs are used? 

5. Supplying any suitable details needed to make the picture 
vivid, rewrite the theme. Use complex sentences, appositives, 
and participles. Begin some sentences with subordinate clauses, 
participles, infinitives, adverbs, or prepositional phrases. 

THE OLD HOME 

It really was an old home, standing there many years before I was 
born, standing there since my father was a little boy. The hinge on the 
old iron gate was rusty, and it squeaked a cordial welcome to every 
visitor. Old-fashioned flowers sent their fragrance through the air. 
Their bright colors made a variegated border for the lawn. The porch 
was high, and an old settee with patch work pillows graced one corner. 
Another summer, and the old screen door would have seen its best day. 
If a visitor had closed it, there would have been a wide opening at the 
bottom, but when the little white-haired lady closed it, it fitted perfectly 
at all corners. The little white-haired lady fitted perfectly in this sunny 








DESCRIPTION 


333 


old home. When she laughed, one thought of the tinkling of tiny bells. 
Her rosy cheeks glowed, and her tiny eyes sparkled. I’ll wager she 
wouldn’t have left the old place for any price. It was the castle of her 
dreams and joys and sorrows.— Pupil’s Theme 

A Scene 

When describing a scene, give the exact time and place. If the 
picture has numerous details, perhaps a general plan or outline 
will help the reader to arrange them in his mind. Victor Hugo 
begins his description of the battle of Waterloo in this way: ‘Ht 
was fought on a piece of ground resembling a capital A. The 
English were at the apex, the French at the feet, and the battle 
was decided about the center.'’ 

Example: 

RIVERSIDE DRIVE ON A SUNDAY MORNING 

On a bright Sunday morning in early spring I am basking in the sun¬ 
shine at the corner of 112th Street and Riverside Drive. On my right lies 



A Marken Street Scene 




334 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


the Hudson, serene and still. Over it floats a soft, billowy cloud in an 
azure sky. On my left is a Chinese wall of apartment houses. 

On the walk, fat, red-cheeked youngsters, all bundled up and blinking 
in the sun, make perilous journeys just within reach of the protecting 
hand of a nursemaid. Pekinese pups are also taking the air, and, like the 
babies, are constantly watched by their owners. A big-boned, good- 
natured Airedale is stalking by, nosing the ground. Farther down the 
street a Belgian police dog is making his tempestuous way along the walk, 
with but one aim—to break loose from the athletic woman who is holding 
tight to the leash. Near by a little lady of six on roller skates struggles 
to retain her equilibrium, almost succeeds, then crashes down.— Pupil’s 
Theme 


THE MICHIGAN CITY LAKE FRONT 

If you would climb to the top of one of the larger sand dunes some 
warm summer afternoon, you would obtain a wonderful view of the 
Michigan City lake front. The different hues of the water and sky, 
combined with the white of the sand and the gray of the old pier, blend 
to make a truly pleasing scene. 

Below you lies the beach road, which winds among the lesser sand 
dunes like a long black serpent. On the other side of the road is the 
beach, on which hundreds of people are amusing themselves. 

A little way down the beach lies the pier, which reaches out into the 
water like some long dark arm. At its end stands the new, white light¬ 
house, looming majestically sixty feet above the water. A few white 
clouds are making their way lazily across the sky, as if sorry to leave so 
beautiful and peaceful a scene.— Pupil’s Theme 

Peactice 11 

Describe for a boy or girl in Australia two still scenes or scenes 
with action in them. Limit the action to a moment. Your pur¬ 
pose is to paint a picture, not to tell a story. If you select a topic 
like number 1, describe both sights and sounds. 

1. An election night scene. 2. At the beach. 3. An exciting moment 
in a play, a moving picture, or real life. 4. The subway or a street car 
at rush hour. 5. The bargain counter. 6. The bleachers when Babe Ruth 
batted out a home run. 7. A dance. 8. A busy office or street corner. 
9. Harvesting wheat. 10. The crowd coming from a factory. 11. When 
the five o’clock whistle blows. 12. A study in color. 13. A Marken 
street scene (page 333). 14. A football scene or play (page 448). 15. Old 
Bruton Church in the time of Lord Dunmore (page 322). 



By Daubigny EVENING Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum 


DESCRIPTION 


335 














336 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Impressionistic Description 

Practice 12 

What impression does the following composition produce? 
How? J 

A TORNADO 

While I was staying at the home of my uncle in Jonesboro, a small 
western town, in the early afternoon of a muggy, showery day, a cry of 
“Tornado’’ was raised. As I hurried to the street, I saw men running 
hither and yon, and mothers gathering their children and rushing them 
into the tornado cellar^. A small group of men and women were watching 
the on-coming tornado; others were following the excited children into 
the cellars. In the distance a low-hanging, inky-black cloud writhed and 
dipped and swiftly formed a whirling funnel that roared like a freight train 
crossing a trestle. It was still miles away, but was moving toward us 
rapidly. For half a minute I watched the racing, whirling, death-dealing 
pillar of dust and rubbish. Then, as I turned and ran into the nearest 
cellar, the sky turned pitchy black and the roar of the tornado almost 
deafened me.—P upil’s Theme 

Practice 13 

1. What impression does the following selection from Anthony 
Gibbs’s Peter Vacuum produce? 

2. List words vividly describing sights. 

3. List words describing sounds. 

The saxophone reared its brazen head in the air, swayed like some sort 
of gleaming python intoxicated by the charmer’s pipe, sent an excruciating 
whinny reeling across the room, and squirted a little spout of sucking 
chuckles to gibber in its wake. A very fat man, with his plump cheeks 
creased by the thin end of this infernal machine, and an expression as 
nearly approaching the ecstatic vision as he was likely to get before he 
trilled seductively on a pasteboard harp, sent an inspired blast of carbon 
dioxide roaring through its sweating innards, which, being wrought on 
by his pudgy fingers, issued forth in the form of weird moans, choking 
coughs, dyspeptic sighs, the bleating of lambs, the gurgling of throttled 
profiteers, and the plaintive cry of the “barmaid calling to her young.” 

“It hadda be yew,” tittered the violinist through the megaphone. 

And the banjos thrummed eternally, and a lean man with india rubber 
fingers hurled himself at the piano until it squeaked at the violence of his 
onslaught, or rippled over its placid surface in a rush of twitterings, as if 


DESCRIPTION 


337 


all the sparrows in London had gone suddenly mad, and the saxophone 
hoicked, and the drum throbbed its insinuating rhythm, and the violin 
shrieked like a soul in pain, and all the demons in hell swayed to this 
diabolical sjmcopation of demented monsters lumbering through fetid 
swamps; and the pulsing agony became more and more insistent with the 
last verse, and the music mounted up and up, modulating through pene¬ 
trating quarter tones that have no place in a printed score, and the time 
became more and more fantastically distorted, and the cornet lifted up 
his voice to heaven and let forth a cry of vengeance, until, with a crash 
of cymbals, and a last howling discord, the band laid down their instru- 



The Library, Columbia University 


ments with every appearance of haste, and disappeared through a small 
door in the back.^ 

Practice 14 

Selecting any scene—schoolroom, office, race track, cellar, bank, de¬ 
partment store, camp, bungalow, hospital, beach, elevator, hall, home, 
street, subway, landscape, baseball field—write a description to produce 
the impression of coziness, cleanliness, good taste, sorrow, happiness, 
discontent, melancholy, neatness, life and hustle, system, confusion, 
poverty, wealth, joy, care, carelessness, silence, heat, cold, wetness, dry¬ 
ness, gayety, loneliness, haste, comfort, strangeness, storm, quiet, de- 

^ Reprinted by permission of the Dial Press. 






338 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


jection, noise, wind, jollity, forlornness, snow, dispatch, hunger, dust, 
laziness, weariness, gloom, homesickness, or exhaustion. As you write 
and revise, apply the suggestions in the chapter. Do not let your theme 
go over into narration. 

An Impressionistic Portrait 

Perhaps your first word portrait turned out to be an under¬ 
exposed snapshot. In any case your experience as a word painter 
will help you to prepare the impressionistic portrait called for 
in this section. 

Pkactice 15 

1. What impression does example 1 or 2 produce? How? 

2. What impression does example 3 produce? How? 

1. BERTHA 

The flapper stenographer girls from upstairs, in abbreviated skirts, with 
their white stockings rolled down, were inclined to giggle as they gazed 
upon Bertha’s buff dress with its long, flowing skirts all ablaze with irides¬ 
cent roses and painted bouquets. There was the charm of quaintness 
about the laced corsage and the beflowered bonnet she wore, and, lo! such 
peach-blossomed cheeks, such celestial blue in her eyes—^just as though 
she had stepped right off the picture on a china cup or an Anders Zorn 
canvas !—Outlook 

2. MISS MURDSTONE 

It was Miss Murdstone who was arrived, and a gloomy-looking lady 
she was; dark, like her brother, whom she greatly resembled in face and 
voice; and with heavy eyebrows, nearly meeting over her large nose, as if, 
being disabled by the wrongs of her sex from wearing whiskers, she had 
carried them to that account. She brought with her two uncompromising, 
hard, black boxes, with her initials on the lids in hard, brass nails. When 
she paid the coachman she took her money out of a hard, steel purse, and 
she kept the purse in a very jail of a bag, which hung upon her arm by 
a heavy chain, and shut up like a bite. I had never, at that time, seen such 
a metallic lady altogether as Miss Murdstone was.— Charles Dickens 

3. KATRINA PREPARES FOR THE PARTY 

Katrina sallied back and forth before the old cracked mirror of the 
Van Tassel homestead. She smiled admiringly at the reflection of the 
prettiest and most popular maiden of Tarrytown and the vicinity around. 


DESCRIPTION 


339 


As she tossed her head gaily from side to side, her short flaxen curls 
bobbed merrily from under the white lace cap which she wore. Two 
little dimples chased in and out her rosy cheeks, and her blue eyes twinkled 
mischievously as she thought of the havoc to be wrought by herself in 
the hearts of two unsuspecting suitors that evening. 

Her dress was of blue homespun, made in true Dutch style with a 
black bodice, and a dainty white apron tied in an immense bow in the 
back. She wore coarsely knit stockings and heavy black slippers adorned 
with huge silver buckles. But in spite of their coarseness they could not 
hide the slim, neat feet and ankles of their little mistress. Her only 
other ornaments were the gold earrings and brooch, which had been 
handed down for many generations. The brilliant jewels of these old 
heirlooms, however, found great competition in the sparkling eyes of this 
Dutch maiden. 

From head to foot, Katrina was a typical Dutch lassie and the daughter 
of a well-to-do farmer. Although she was slightly spoiled by her over 
indulgent parents, she was unanimously declared the belle of the village, 
and was also known to be the cause of many a petty squabble among the 
stronger sex of the countryside.— Pupil’s Theme 

Pkactice 16 

Write an impressionistic description of a person. Look for an 
unusual person but don’t expect to find any one so strikingly un¬ 
usual as Miss Murdstone. 

The Five Senses 

Although we commonly describe sights and sounds, we often 
describe what we taste, smell, and feel. The description of a cup 
of coffee, for example, may include its appearance, temperature, 
aroma, and taste. 

Practice 17 

Write a description appealing principally or entirely to a sense 
or senses other than sight. Use one of the following topics or 
choose your own. 

1. Country noises. 2. City noises. 3. School noises. 4. A kitchen on 
a hot morning. 5. A hay field. 6. A baseball or football crowd. 7. A 
busy office. 8. A street corner. 9. A parade. 10. A delicatessen store. 
11. A mass meeting. 12. A bakery. 13. The contents of a lunch box 


340 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 










DESCRIPTION 


341 


or basket. 14. A good dinner. 15. Barnyard sounds. 16. Voices at a 
party or on a street car. 17. The orchestra at practice. 18. Sounds in 
the crowd. 19. Bird calls. 


Pictures 

Practice 18 

1. Describe a picture in this book so vividly that by listening to your 
word painting the class can sketch the picture. Select one that you 
haven’t talked about in class or written about. Which of the suggestions 
in the chapter have you applied? 

2. Describe vividly an advertisement, a poster, or a cartoon that has 
attracted your attention. 

3. Describe the cartoon on page 340 and explain its meaning. 

Faces 

Practice 19 

Entertain the class with word pictures of the faces you saw 
on a street car, bus, or subway train, at the fair, or at a meeting 
or entertainment. 







CHAPTER XVI 


SHORT STORY 

Why Write Short Stories? 

Most of the millions of magazines mailed each month to sub¬ 
scribers or sold on the news stands are filled, half filled, or quarter 
filled with short stories. People of all ages and classes like oc¬ 
casionally to leave their work, problems, and routine and five for 
a while in the world of the imagination. Because the short story, 
a concise, direct presentation of characters, an idea, a scene, and 
some dramatic action, can be read easily at one sitting, it has an 
especial appeal to our restless generation. 

If you, like most other people, are going to read short stories 
in school and out of school, it is worth your while to learn to judge 
and appreciate them. A tennis player gets out of a champion¬ 
ship tennis match keener and higher enjoyment than one who has 
never played the game, because he appreciates fine points of the 
contest to which the one who has not played tennis is blind. So 
one who has written stories selects more discriminatingly stories 
to read and appreciates more thoroughly the artistry and the truth 
in them. 

Most students class story-writing with swimming and football 
as hard work but the best of fun. After learning the technique 
of story-writing many a pupil discovers that he has stories to tell 
and tries his hand at writing stories to sell. All who study and 
write short stories learn how to narrate entertainingly true or 
imaginary incidents. 

What a Short Story Is 

Because the term short story embraces the greatest variety of 
narratives—stories of terror, romantic adventure, ingenuity, 
local color, the supernatural, and dramatic incident, for example— 

343 


344 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


only a broad definition includes all. Moreover in story-writing as 
in the other arts a mature artist may disregard rules and principles 
without which the beginner will fail. 

Dr. Blanche Colton Williams’s terse definition is, ^'The short 
story is a narrative artistically presenting characters in a struggle 
or complication which has a definite outcome.’’ J. Berg Esenwein 
says that the true short story is marked by seven characteristics: 
(1) a single predominating incident; (2) a single preeminent char¬ 
acter; (3) imagination; (4) plot; (5) compression; (6) organization; 
and (7) unity of impression. 

Commonly minor incidents prepare for the most important 
incident (1). In addition to the outstanding character (2) other 
necessary characters, usually not more than five, may be intro¬ 
duced. Imagination (3) is the picture-making power of the mind. 
Plot (4) includes complication, or tangling up, leading to a climax 
and resolution, or untanghng. Conflict or struggle is the very heart 
of the short story. The characters get into trouble and then get 
out of it. Compression (5) requires the ehmination of unnecessary 
setting, characterization, discussion, action, and words. The 
word organization (6) suggests that the short story, unlike the 
string of incidents in an account of a day’s outing, consists of 
incidents causally related. Incidents grow out of the characters 
and cause other incidents. Finally, the short story leaves a unified 
impression (7), a feeling of joy, horror, triumph, despair, amuse¬ 
ment, or grief. 

Raw Materials 

Although some people have livelier imaginations than others, 
yet even our greatest story-tellers have painstakingly collected 
the raw material out of which stories are made. This material 
lies all about us in our family, friends, and associates, the happen¬ 
ings of the day, the scenes we know, the ideas we discuss, the news¬ 
papers, magazines, and books we read. 

First we should study ourselves. Arnold Bennett says that all 
the greatest novels are autobiographical. If a person thoroughly 
understands the working of his own mind, he knows much about 
other people. Next we should observe. Every professional writer 


SHORT STORY 


345 


knows that setting down in a notebook what he sees opens his 
eyes so that he sees more to jot down. Only by developing a 
seeing eye can one really know the people, scenes, and characters 
he wishes to write about. We should also read. The newspaper, 
histories, biographies, travel books, and magazine articles present 
characters and incidents that may be used as starting-places for 
stories. 

Conflict is the essence of the short story. Every one is interested 
in a race between two men for the quarter-mile championship, the 
control of a corporation or political party, or the hand of a girl 
in marriage, or the conflict between the man who wants his son to 
carry on the family hardware business and the son who is deter¬ 
mined to be an actor. The struggle in a man’s mind when he has 
a chance to ^^get even” with a rival or when he has an opportunity 
to earn a fortune by selling poisonous books, magazines, or drugs, 
or otherwise injuring his fellow-men is no less dramatic. All are 
interested too in the mysterious—^the strange noise, the secret 
door, the letter written in code, the haunted house. Everybody 
enjoys also action, especially imusual or striking action in which 
the performers arouse our sympathy—^marching soldiers, a hero 
aviator riding up Main Street, a man rescuing a horse from a burn¬ 
ing barn, the freshman substitute fullback winning the game. 

Practice 1 

1. Find in the paper a news story which might be used as an incident 
or the predominating incident of a short story. 

2. Walk past a store window. Describe the display in the window. 

3. Jot down accurately an entertaining or illuminating conversation 
that you have overheard or had a part in. 

4. Describe briefly the appearance and character of a person who be¬ 
longs in a book. This may be some one you know or some one you have 
just studied on the subway or street car, or at a meeting. 

Elements of a Short Story 

The four elements of a short story are plot, character, atmos¬ 
phere, and theme. In a character story the emphasis is on the 
presentation of a character; in a plot story, on complicated, novel, 


346 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


or surprising plot; in an atmosphere story, upon the setting and 
subjective coloring. A story of theme illustrates strikingly an idea 
or a truth of human hfe. The short-story writer may begin with 
plot, character, theme, or atmosphere. 

Plot 

A common germ idea or starting-point of a short story is an 
incident, a situation, or an anecdote. The incident may be an 
experience of the writer or one of his friends, a happening recorded 
in a history, biography, or newspaper, or an imagined happening. 

Goethe says that there are only thirty-six tragic situations. Some 
of these that are useful to the story-writer are the pursued, revolt, 
the enigma, fatal imprudence, rivalry of kinsmen or friends, 
unequal rivalry, obstacles to love, an enemy loved, ambition, mis¬ 
taken identity, the savior, self-sacrifice for an ideal, self-sacrifice 
for kindred or friends, discovery of the dishonor of a loved one, 
and recovery of a lost one. 

Examples of incidents or situations that have story value: 

1. A doctor is persecuted by the taxpayers of a city or town because he 
advocates improvements to eliminate unsanitary conditions. 

2. At a masquerade party a young man falls in love with a beautiful 
and fascinating oriental princess, who proves to be a boy. 

3. When a man answers his rear doorbell one night, he finds waiting 
for him a policeman with drawn revolver and two neighbors who have 
been led to believe that there is a burglar in the house. 

4. After marrying a man, a woman finds out that he is a liar and a 
thief. 

5. A woman steals to pay for a trip South for her sick husband. 

6. A mother sees her son taking money from her purse. 

7. A girl falls in love with the son of her father’s enemy. 

8. A man crossing the street is knocked down by an automobile. He 
crawls to his feet and calls a traffic officer. Much to his amazement, he 
discovers his wife to be the driver of the machine. 

9. Hating his stepbrother with all his heart, Jerry Taylor nevertheless 
risks his life to save him from a watery grave. 

10. A man has just moved into a neighborhood where the houses are 
all alike. Coming home late at night, he finds he has no key, climbs 
through an open window, and discovers he has entered the wrong house. 


SHORT STORY 
Practice 2 


347 


1. Find in the newspaper, a history, or a biography an incident or a 
situation that might be used as a story-germ. 

2. What experience of your own or of a friend’s might be the starting- 
point of a short story? 



Courtesy of the ^'Saturday Evening Post" 

3. Imagine a happening or situation that could be used as a story- 
germ. 

4. Find an anecdote that might be expanded into a short story. 

5. Find or invent three other incidents, situations, or anecdotes that 
might be used as starting-points for stories. Do not include hackneyed 




348 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


material such as the weird experiences that prove to be a dream or the 
athletic hero who wins the game and thus wins the hand of the beautiful 
girl he loves. 


Character 

The starting-point of a character story is commonly an unusual, 
striking, or fascinating real or imagined person. The story 
character regularly has one outstanding trait—^kindness, shrewd¬ 
ness, ability to reason, faithfulness to duty, devotion to a master, 
desire for revenge, interest in crimes, determination, joy in work 
well done. 

Examples: 

1. A young man who, instead of taking responsibility, relies on his 
widowed mother, a saleswoman, to get him to school on time, to see that 
he does his homework, to pay his college bills, to find a job for him, and 
to get him to work on time. 

2. A successful stained-glass window decorator who saves his money 
to go to Paris to study painting and starves as a painter rather than 
return to a good position as a stained-glass window decorator. 

3. A woman who, like a child, builds air castles and then teUs her 
friends again and again about trips abroad and around the v/orld, country 
estates, servants, and expensive cars which she expects soon to enjoy but 
which never become realities. 

4. A mechanical genius who enjoys taking a car apart more than 
riding in it and thinks out ways to improve his automobile, radio, and 
other machines. Sometimes the “improved” machines don’t work. 

5. An actor in middle life who for years is supported by his relatives 
while he goes from producer to producer seeking work. He is unwilling 
to do any kind of work but acting. 

6. A boy who grows up with the idea that manual labor is beneath him 
and that study is unnecessary. 

7. A girl who is never sincere, who always wears a mask to hide her 
real self. 

8. A man who always suspects people of criticizing his clothing, be¬ 
comes self-conscious, and in his efforts to please his supposed critics wears 
freakish clothes and makes himself ridiculous. 

9. A boy who attends a private school and spends much of his time 
telling how popular he is and how much he does for the school, when in 
reality he plays but a very small part in the school’s life. 


SHORT STORY 


349 


Practice 3 

In the manner indicated describe briefly four people who have story 
value. Start with people you know, have heard about, or have read 
about, but change them if you wish. 

Theme 

Sometimes the story-writer starts with an idea or theme; most 
novels and short stories illustrate an idea or present in concrete 
form a truth of human life. James Lane Allen’s The Kentucky 
Cardinal instills a love of birds; Silas Marner shows the influence 
of a little child upon a man; Tarkington’s Alice Adams shows the 
effects of posing; his Seventeen interprets the youth of high-school 
age; Mitchell’s Hugh Wynne makes more real the Revolutionary 
War, Washington, Arnold, and Andre; Sinclair Lewis’s Main 
Street pictures the self-satisfied dullness of small-town life; his 
Babbitt shows the foibles of successful and self-sufficient city people; 
Dickens’s Nicholas Nicklehy attacks the abuses of charity schools 
and brutal schoolmasters; his Oliver Twist exposes the wretched 
condition of the poor in the Engfish workhouses. The theme of 
De Maupassant’s ^‘The Necklace” is expressed in the sentence, 
^‘How small a thing is needed to save us or lose us!” The text of 
Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables is, ‘^The fathers have 
eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are on edge.” 

Examples of themes for short stories: 

1. Jealousy leads to folly and injustice. 

2. A mother’s sacrifice, while seeming to benefit her child, in reality 
causes the girl to lose the most precious thing in life. 

3. Judge a person by what he does, not by what he says. 

4. An intelligent and resourceful wife is often the chief cause of a 
man’s success. 

5. A selfish wife may prevent a man’s advancing in his business or 
profession. 

6. Virtue is her own reward.— Prior 

7. Sudden wealth is dangerous. 

8. There is, however, a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a 
virtue.— Burke 

9. A friend to everybody is a friend to nobody. 

10. All is not gold that glitters. 




350 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Practice 4 

Find or invent five themes which might be used as starting-points of 
stories. 

Setting 

Occasionally an author starts with a setting. Stevenson says, 
‘‘Some places speak distinctly. Certain dank gardens cry aloud 
for a murder; certain old houses demand to be haunted; certain 
coasts are set apart for shipwreck.^’ High-school students, how¬ 
ever, as a rule write more easily and entertainingly when they 
begin with an incident, a situation, an anecdote, a character, or 
a theme than when they use setting as the starting-point for an 
atmosphere or local-color story. 

Setting includes time, place, occupations, and conditions. 
When the curtain rises, one sees the setting of a scene of a play. 
Although important, features of the background or setting are 
pictured near the beginning of the story, details are often pre¬ 
sented as the story progresses. Long paragraphs of description 
slow up the story and confuse the reader; brief vivid descriptions 
help the reader to realize the story. Paragraph 3 of “The Neck¬ 
lace’^ presents the setting of the story by contrasting the poverty 
of Madame Loisel’s dwelling with the splendor of the home of her 
dreams. Paragraph 9 gives the information that the Loisels 
lived in Paris. 


THE NECKLACE! 

By Guy de Maupassant 

1. She was one of those pretty and charming girls, born as if by mis¬ 
chance, in a family of employees. She had no dowry, no expectations, no 
means of being known, understood, loved by a rich and distinguished 
man; and she let herself be married to a clerk at the Ministry of Public 
Education. 

2. She dressed simply because she could not afford to adorn herself; 
but she was as unhappy as if she had fallen from a high estate; for women 
have neither cast nor station; their beauty, grace, and charm serve for 
family and noble birth. Innate fineness, instinct for beauty, and ver- 

!The translation by Dr. Blanche Colton Williams is reprinted by permission 
from A Book of Short Stories, published by D. Appleton and Company. 


SHORT STORY 351 

satility, their only hierarchy, make women of the lower class equal to the 
grandest ladies. 

3. She suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born for delicacies and 
luxuries. She suffered from the poverty of her apartment, the miserable 
walls, the shabby chairs, the ugly furnishings. All these things, of which 
another woman of her class would not even have been sensible, tortured 
and angered her. The sight of the little Breton maid, her only servant, 
aroused in her gloomy regrets and distracted thoughts. She dreamed of 
silent antechambers draped with Oriental hangings, lighted by tall 
bronze lamps, and of two imposing footmen in knee breeches who drowsed 
in big armchairs lulled asleep by the heavy warmth of the stove. She 
thought of grand drawing rooms hung in antique silk, of elegant furniture 
holding priceless trinkets, and of little perfumed coquettish parlors, made 
for talks at five o’clock with particularly intimate friends, men celebrated 
and sought after, whom all women envy and whose attention they wish. 

4. When she sat down for dinner at a round table covered with a cloth 
three days old, opposite her husband who uncovered the soup bowl ex¬ 
claiming blissfully: “Ah! the good beef stew! I don’t know anything 
better than that!” . . . she thought of dainty dinners, of shining silver 
plate, of tapestries that peopled the walls with ancient personages and 
strange birds in the midst of a fairy forest; she thought of exquisite dishes 
served on marvelous platters, of whispered gallantries which one heard 
with the smile of a sphinx while she ate the pink flesh of a trout or the 
wings of a quail. 

5. She had no gowns, no jewels, nothing. And she loved that sort of 
thing only; she felt that she was made for that alone. She would have 
liked so much to please, to be envied, to be attractive and sought after. 
She had a rich friend, a companion of convent days, whom she did not 
wish any more to visit, because she suffered so on returning home. And 
she wept whole days from chagrin, regret, and despair. 

6. Then one day her husband came in with a proud look, holding in 
his hand a large envelope. 

7. “There,” said he, “there is something for you!” 

8. She quickly tore the paper, and drew out an engraved card which 
bore these words: 

9. “The Minister of Public Education and Madame George Ram- 

ponneau beg M. and Mme. Loisel to do them the honor of passing 

the evening at the palace of the Ministry, on Monday, January 18th.” 

10. Instead of being delighted, as her husband had hoped, she angrily 
threw the invitation on the table, murmuring: 

11. “What do you wish me to do with that?” 

12. “Why, my dear, I thought,you would be happy! You never go 
out; and it is an occasion, this, a big affair! I had a lot of trouble to get it. 


352 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Everybody wants one; it is very exclusive, and not many invitations are 
given to employees. You will see all the official world there.’’ 

13. She looked at him with irritation, and spoke impatiently: 

14. ‘^What do you expect me to put on my back?” 

15. He had not thought; he faltered: 

16. ^‘Why, the dress you wear to the theater. It seems good enough, 
to me . . 

17. He trailed off, dismayed, as he saw that his wife was weeping. 

18. Two big tears fell slowly from the corners of her eyes to the corners 
of her mouth. 

19. ‘‘What’s the matter? What’s the matter?” he stammered. 

20. But by a violent effort she had conquered her grief, and she re¬ 
sponded in a calm voice, as she wiped her wet cheeks: 

21. “Nothing. Only I have no gown, and consequently I can’t go 
to this ball. Give your card to some colleague whose wife will be better 
equipped than I.” 

22. He was grieved. 

23. “Let us see, Mathilde,” he replied. “How much would a suitable 
costume cost, one which would do also for other occasions, somethiug 
quite simple?” 

24. She reflected some seconds, calculating, and considering also the 
sum she could ask for without drawing an immediate refusal and a terri¬ 
fied exclamation from the economical clerk. 

25. Finally, she answered hesitantly: 

26. “I don’t know precisely; but I think I could do it with four hundred 
francs.” 

27. He turned a bit pale; for he was saving just that sum with which 
to buy a gun and treat himself to some hunting the following summer on 
the plain of Nanterre, with friends who went down there of Sundays to 
shoot larks. 

28. But he said: 

29. “Very well. I’ll give you four hundred francs. And try to get a 
pretty gown.” 

30. The day of the ball drew near, and Madame Loisel seemed sad, 
uneasy, anxious. Her gown was ready, however. 

31. One evening her husband said to her: “What’s the matter? Do 
you know you’ve been very funny for three days?” 

32. And she answered: “It annoys me not to have one jewel, a single 
stone to wear. I shall make a miserable appearance. I’d almost rather 
not go to this party.” 

33. “Wear some flowers,” he replied. “It’s quite the thing this season. 
For ten francs you can get two or three magnificent roses.” 


SHORT STORY 


353 


34. She was not convinced. 

35. “No, there's nothing more humiliating than to look poor among 
rich women." 

36. Then her husband exclaimed: 

37. “How stupid you are! Find your friend, Madame Forestier, and 
ask her to lend you some jewels. You know her well enough to do so." 

38. “It is true!" she exclaimed joyfully. “I had not thought of that." 

39. The next morning she went to see her friend and told her 
trouble. 

40. Madame Forestier opened the mirror door of her wardrobe, took 
down a large jewel case, brought it, opened it, and said to Madame Loisel: 

41. “Choose, my dear." 

42. She saw first some bracelets, then a collar of pearls, then a Venetian 
cross, gold and precious stones, of admirable workmanship. She tried 
on the things before the mirror, and hesitated, unable to part with them 
or to return them. 

43. “Haven't you anything else?" she kept asking. 

44. “Oh, yes. Look. I don't know what will please you." 

45. Suddenly she discovered, in a black satin box, a superb necklace 
of diamonds; and her heart began to beat with extreme desire. She took 
it up with trembling hands. She put it around her throat, over her high- 
necked dress, and looked at herself in ecstasy. 

46. Then she asked, hesitatingly, full of painful doubt: 

47. “Can you lend me this? Only this?" 

48. “Why, yes, certainly." 

49. She fell upon the neck of her friend, embraced her passionately, 
then fled with her treasure. 

50. The day of the ball arrived. Madame Loisel made a great success, 
She was the most beautiful of all the women; she was elegant, gracious, 
smiling, and drunk with joy. All the men observed her, asked her name, 
begged to be presented. All the attaches of the cabinet wished to waltz 
with her. The Minister remarked upon her. 

51. She danced with intoxication, with passion, made giddy by pleasure, 
thinldng of nothing, in the triumph of her beauty, in the glory of her 
success, in a sort of happy cloud made up of all this homage, admiration, 
aroused desires, of a victory sweet and complete to the heart of a woman. 

52. She left about four o'clock in the morning. Her husband had been 
sleeping since midnight, in a little deserted parlor, with three other men 
whose wives were enjoying themselves. 

53. He threw over her shoulders the wraps he had brought, the modest 
garments of common life, the poverty of which clashed with the elegance 
of the ball dress. She felt this, and wished to get away quickly, in order 


354 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


not to be noticed by the other women who were enveloping themselves in 
rich furs. 

54. Loisel restrained her, as he said: 

55. ‘‘Wait a minute. You’ll catch cold outside. I’ll call a cab.” 

56. But she did not listen to him and rapidly walked down the stairway. 
When they were in the street, they could not find a carriage; and began to 
look for one, shouting after the cabmen whom they saw at a distance. 

57. Shivering, they walked in despair toward the Seine. Finally they 
found on the quay one of those ancient coupes seen in Paris only after 
nightfall, as if they were ashamed of their wretched appearance during 
the day. 

58. It took them to their gate in the Rue des Martjrrs, and they climbed 
up homeward, sadly. For her, it was all over. As for him, he was think¬ 
ing that he would have to be at the Ministry at ten o’clock. 

59. She took off her wraps before the mirror to see herself one more 
time in all her glory. But suddenly she screamed out. No longer were 
the diamonds around her neck! 

60. “What’s the trouble?” asked her husband, already half-undressed. 

61. Excitedly she turned to him. 

62. “I’ve—I’ve—^I’ve lost the necklace, Madame Forestier’s necklace!” 

63. He stood up, terrified. 

64. “What—^how—^impossible!” 

65. They looked in the folds of her dress, in the plaits of the cloak, in 
the pockets, everywhere. They could find it nowhere. 

66. “Are you sure you still had it when you left the ball?” he asked. 

87. “Yes, I touched it in the vestibule of the Ministry.” 

68. “But if you had lost it in the street, we should have heard it fall. 
It ought to be in the cab.” 

69. “Yes, probably. Did you take the number?” 

70. “No. Did you notice it yourself?” 

71. “No.” 

72. Thunderstruck, they looked at each other. Finally, Loisel dressed 
again. 

73. “I’m going over the whole route on foot,” said he, “to see if I 
can’t find it.” 

74. And he went out. Crumpled in a chair, she waited in her baU dress 
without strength to go to bed, without life, without a thought. 

75. Her husband returned around seven o’clock. He had found 
nothing. 

76. He went to police headquarters, to newspapers, to offer a reward, 
to cab companies—everywhere the smallest hope urged him. 

77. She waited all day, in the same state of terror before this frightful 
calamity. 



SHORT STORY 


355 


78. Loisel returned in the evening with a pale and hollow visage; he 
had discovered nothing. 

79. ‘‘You must write/’ he said, “to your friend, that you have broken 
the clasp of the necklace, and that you are having it repaired. That will 
give us time to turn round.” 

80. She wrote at his dictation. 

81. At the end of a week they had lost all hope. 

82. Loisel, who looked five years older, declared: “We must consider 
the replacing of the necklace.” 

83. The next morning they took the box which had contained it 
and went to the jeweler’s whose name was inside. He consulted his 
books: 

84. “It was not I, madame, who sold the diamonds; I furnished only 
the jewel case.” 

85. Then they went from jeweler to jeweler, looking for a necklace 
like the lost one, consulting their memories, both of them sick from chagrin 
and anguish. 

86. They found in a shop in the Palais Royale a string of diamonds 
which looked to them exactly like the one for which they were searching. 
It was worth forty thousand francs. They could have it for thirty-six 
thousand. 

87. Then they begged the jeweler not to sell it for three days. And 
they made the stipulation that he would take it back for thirty-four 
thousand francs, if they found the first before the end of February. 

88. Loisel had eighteen thousand francs which his father had left him. 
He would borrow the rest. 

89. He borrowed, asking a thousand francs of one, five hundred of 
another, five louis here, three louis there. He made notes, took ruinous 
terms, had to do with usurers, with all the race of lenders. He compro¬ 
mised all the rest of his life, risking his signature without even knowing 
if he could pay duly; and, terrified by the anguish of the future, by the 
black misery about to destroy him, by the prospect of all physical priva¬ 
tions and all moral tortures, he went to get the new necklace, laying upon 
the counter of the merchant thirty-six thousand francs. 

90. When Madame Loisel took back the necklace, Madame Forestier 
said to her coldly: 

91. “You ought to have returned it to me sooner; I might have needed 
it.” 

92. She did not open the box, as her friend had so greatly feared. If 
she had been aware of the substitution what would she have thought? 
What would she have said? Would she not have taken Mathilde for a 
thief? 


356 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


93. Madame Loisel knew the horrible life of the needy. She took the 
part suddenly thrust upon her, however, with heroism. This frightful 
debt had to be paid. She would pay it. They sent away the servant; they 
changed their lodgings; they rented quarters in an attic. 

94. She knew the heavy work of the housekeeping, the hateful cares of 
the kitchen. She washed the table utensils, using her rosy nails upon the 
greasy pots and the bottom of the stew pans. She washed the dirty linen, 
the smocks and the dish towels, which she dried on a line; every morning 
she took the slops down to the street, then carried up the water, stopping 
at each landing to catch her breath. And dressed like a woman of the 
people, she went, basket on arm, to the fruiterer, the grocer, the butcher 
haggling, insulted, defending her miserable money, sou by sou. 

95. Every month they had to pay off some notes, renew others, obtain 
more time. 

96. Her husband worked in the evening, clearing up the accounts of a 
merchant, and at night he often did copying at five sous a page. 

97. And this life lasted ten years. 

98. At the end of ten years they had paid everything, all at usurious 
rates and with compound interest. 

99. Madame Loisel looked old, now. She had become hard, strong, 
and rough—the woman of poor households. Her hair unkempt, her 
skirts askew, her hands red, she talked loud, as she washed the floor with 
great splashes of water. But sometimes, when her husband was at the 
office, she would sit down by the window, and think of that evening of 
long ago, of the ball where she had been so beautiful and so admired. 

100. What would have happened if she had not lost the necklace? 
Who knows, who knows? How singular and changeful life is! How small 
a thing is needed to save us or lose us! 

101. But one Sunday, when she had gone to take a walk in the Champs 
Elysees, to refresh herself from the cares of the week, she suddenly saw a 
woman leading a child. It was Madame Forestier, still young, still beauti- 
tiful, still engaging. 

102. Madame Loisel felt moved. Ought she to speak? Yes, certainly. 
And now that she had paid, she would tell her everything. Why not? 

103. She stepped up: 

104. “Good day, Jeanne.” 

105. The other did not recognize her, astonished to be addressed so 
familiarly by this common woman. “But, Madame,” she stammered, 
“I do not know . . . you must have made a mistake.” 

106. “No. I am Mathilde Loisel.” 

107. Her friend uttered a cry: 

108. “Oh, my poor Mathilde, how changed you are!” 

109. “Yes, I have had some hard enough days, since I saw you, and 
days wretched enough . . . and all because of you.” 



SHORT STORY 


357 


110. ‘‘Of me. . . . How is that?” 

111. “You remember the diamond necklace you let me have to wear 
to the ball at the Ministry?” 

112. “Yes. Well?” 

113. “WeU, I lost it.” 

114. “What—how—^you brought it back to me.” 

115. “I brought you another just like it. And for ten years we have 
been paying for it. You must understand that it was not easy for us, 
who had nothing. At last it is ended, and I am fairly content.” 

116. Madame Forestier had stopped. 

117. “You say that you bought a diamond necklace to replace mine?” 

118. “Yes. You were not aware of it, then? They were very much 
alike.” 

119. And she smiled with a joy proud and naive. 

120. Madame Forestier, strongly moved, took both her hands. 

121. “Oh, my poor Mathilde! Why, mine was paste! It was worth at 
most five hundred francs!” 

Local Color and Atmosphere 

Local color suggests the Cape Cod of Joseph C. Lincoln, the 
Virginia of Thomas Nelson Page, the New Orleans of George W. 
Cable, the northwestern farm-country of Hamlin Garland, the 
New England of Mary Wilkins Freeman, the Pennsylvania Ger¬ 
mans of Elsie Singmaster. Each of these authors has presented in 
detail the manners, customs, dress, dialect, and scenery of a 
section of our country. In “The Necklace” the references to a 
dowry (paragraph 1), to lark-shooting (paragraph 27), to a ward¬ 
robe with a glass door (paragraph 40), and to the “ancient coupes” 
(paragraph 57) are illustrations of local color, of which there is 
very little in this story. 

The Winston Simplified Dictionary defines atmosphere as “the 
influence effected by a work of art or literature upon the spirit or 
emotion.” Edgar Allan Poe says that there should be no word in 
a short story which does not help to produce a preconceived effect. 
His stories illustrate his theory and influence us by their atmos¬ 
phere of gloom, mystery, weirdness, and horror. An effective 
ghost story has an atmosphere of uncanniness, spookiness, or 
creepiness. Paragraphs 2, 3, 4, and 5 of “The Necklace” suggest 
an atmosphere of gloom. 


358 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Building a Plot 

A simple plot may be diagramed in this way: 

B 


c 



A is the cause or initial impulse, the incident or force which starts 
the story. In ‘The Necklace’^ it is the receiving of an invitation 
from the Minister of Public Instruction. Without this invitation 
there would not have been any story. The line AB represents 
the complication, entanglement, mix-up, or rising action; B is the 
effect or the climax. In “The Necklace” the entanglement in¬ 
cludes Loisel’s giving his wife four hundred francs for a party 
dress, her borrowing a necklace from Madame Forestier, Madame 
Loisel’s triumph at the ball, the losing of the necklace, their search 
for a necklace like the lost one, their buying the necklace for thirty- 
six thousand francs, Madame Loiseks returning the necklace, her 
meeting Madame Forestier in the Champs Flysees. 

In this story the climax, the untangling or falling action, and 
the conclusion are in paragraph 121. Barrett defines climax as 
“the apex of interest and emotion, the point of the story.” For 
this surprise ending the untangling is shorter than it is in most 
stories. Yet a good rule for story-writing is to make the untanghng 
and conclusion as brief as possible. 

An essential difference between the incidents of a plot and the 
incidents of a fishing trip is that the happenings of a fishing trip 
are like a string of beads or a train of cars, whereas the incidents of a 
short story are related by cause and effect or are motivated. In 
“The Necklace” the invitation causes the purchase of the party 
dress and the borrowing of the necklace; the invitation and the 
borrowing lead up to Madame Loiseks triumph at the ball and 
the losing of the necklace; the losing of the necklace is the cause 
of the search for the necklace, their buying a necklace for thirty- 



SHORT STORY 


359 


six thousand francs and returning it to Madame Forestier, and 
their ten years of drudgery. 

The essential difference between an incident and the plot of a 
short story is comphcation. When Margaret Wayne, the daughter 
of the president of the National City Bank, having been told by a 
magazine editor that her stories lack atmosphere, leaves her Park 
Avenue home to work in a department store as Jessie Thomas, 
hves with salesgirls, and later becomes a successful short-story 
writer, her overcoming an obstacle may be written up as an inci¬ 
dent. The criticism of the editor is the inciting impulse and the 
publication of her stories is the climax. If, however, the proprie¬ 
tor’s son, who is starting at the bottom as a shipping clerk, falls in 
love with this unusual shopgirl, the complication gives the incident 
story value. Likewise in ^‘The Necklace” the borrowing and 
losing of the necklace complicate the receiving an invitation and 
enjoying a triumph at the ball and make the story. 

‘The Gift of the Magi” illustrates a favorite method of O. 
Henry, comphcating by having the characters work at cross-pur¬ 
poses. Della and Jim need money to buy Christmas gifts. Della’s 
love for Jim prompts her to sell her hair to buy him a platinum fob 
chain for his watch; Jim sells his watch to buy Della pure tortoise 
shell combs, side and back, with jeweled rims. 

Struggle is another important element of plot construction. 
The struggle may be physical or mental and may be between man 
and nature, man and animal, man and man, man and super¬ 
natural forces, or man and himself. When, for example, Jim 
Vaughn hesitates between rescuing an enemy and letting him die, 
the mental struggle has story value. Stevenson’s “Markheim” 
and De Maupassant’s ‘The Coward” are other illustrations of the 
struggle between a man and himself. 

Complication and struggle lead to suspense, an important 
element in a plot. When the action is complicated and the struggle 
between man and man, man and himself, or man and a super¬ 
natural power seems equal, the reader does not like to lay down 
the magazine or book until he knows how the story ends. If the 
reader knows early in the story that the substitute will win the 


360 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


game, that the girl will marry her guardian, that Margy will 
prevent the robbery, that the ghost is a mischievous boy, that the 
necklace is only paste, he is not hkely to finish the story. 
Paragraph 75 of “The Necklace’’ is an illustration of suspense. 

In “The Necklace” suspense and surprise are created also by 
leaving out the fact that the lost necklace was only paste. Instead 
of telling the story in the strictly chronological order, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 
6, 7, 8, 9,10,11,12, De Maupassant makes use of the order 1, 2, 3, 
4, 5, 6, 7, 9,10, 11, 12, 8. He conceals the secret that the necklace 
was only paste and places this information at the end. 

Action-Plot 

In the building of a plot a germ idea, which may be an incident, 
situation, anecdote, theme, character, or scene, is the starting- 
point. The next step is to develop the plot-germ into an action- 
plot. 

Example of action-plot: 

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF JOHANN GERHARDT 

On March 19, 1898, the foremost newspapers of Berlin announced in 
glaring headlines the disappearance of the world’s most famous contem¬ 
porary musician and composer, Johann Gerhardt. Underneath, in smaller 
type, the papers explained that Gerhardt had been missing for five days 
and that his valet, becoming anxious, had notified the police. A full de¬ 
scription of Gerhardt was given and a large reward offered for any infor¬ 
mation concerning him. 

On April 2 the disappearance of Gerhardt had not yet run out the 
usual short life of the sensational story. Not one clue had the baffled 
police. His disappearance seemed almost supernatural. The papers 
published an account of his rapid rise from the poor sixteen-year-old 
peasant boy studying at the free musical institute, to the man of thirty 
whose creative genius critics the world over deemed limitless. 

Thus spoke the newspapers. What they did not know was that Johann 
Gerhardt’s gift for composing was slowly driving him mad. On the night 
of his disappearance Gerhardt had tramped into the heart of Old Berlin 
in the clutches of the relentless urge of melody. At such times as these 
he would hear, far away, a melody, very faint, very elusive. He would 
hear it again and again—always losing it. Try as he would he could not 
put it on paper, could not even hum it. For hours, even days, this would 
go on. He could not escape it. Always it was there. 


SHORT STORY 


361 


On March 15 Gerhardt had stumbled into a tiny alley, trying vainly 
to elude the urge. Suddenly a melodeon began to play and to pour out 
its soul into the night. A light shone from the window of the house. 
That looked like home to Johann; he would go in. He had knocked, 
entered, and in a burst of confidence had told his tale to the old wood 
carver who lived there. The old man understood him, sympathized with 
him, and advised Johann to give up his old life and try hard bodily labor 
instead. He knew that only in hard work would Johann find relief. 

At present, in Berlin, the disappearance of Johann Gerhardt is an un¬ 
solved mystery, and Johann Gerhardt the musician is a legend, his works 
a living memorial to him. But in the heart of Old Berlin, Johann Gerhardt, 
the wood carver, has found peace.— Pupil’s Theme 

Practice 5 

Develop one of your story-germs into an action-plot. 

Creating Characters 

Commonly in a story there are not more than six persons, one 
of whom occupies the center of the stage. In ‘‘The Necklace,” 
which has three characters, Loisel, Madame Loisel, and Madame 
Forestier, the spotlight is on Madame Loisel. 

As a rule, the preeminent character has a dominant trait, 
characteristic, desire, weakness, power, ambition, or ideal, upon 
which the plot is built. In ‘^The Necklace” the outstanding trait 
of Madame Loisel, her desire to enjoy the delicacies and luxuries 
of life, leads to her borrowing and losing the necklace and hence is 
the foundation of the plot. 

Sometimes a minor or humorous weakness or striking contra¬ 
diction is associated with a desirable dominant trait. For example, 
the benevolent gentleman loves everybody and everything but 
hates cats; the prosperous, generous man never throws away a 
string; or a hero in battle is afraid to face an audience. 

To put real people into stories one must first know thoroughly 
some interesting people. Hence students of life and of story¬ 
writing should form the habit of studying and understanding the 
boys, girls, men, and women they see or meet in the home, the 
church, the theater, the classroom, and the street car, discovering 
the distinguishing mark or trait of each, and using in their stories 


362 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


these people, not Japanese generals, German industrial leaders, 
Russian peasants, Swiss farmers, or the ^Tour hundred,’^ unless 
they really know these people. 

Practice 6 

Write the biography of a person you intend to put into your story. 
Start with some one you know but change the character as you see fit 
and use your imagination for details. Include in your biography birth, 
parentage, childhood, later life, achievement, character, dominant trait, 
temperament, and appearance. 

Traits of character are best portrayed by acts and speech but 
may be suggested in a description of the person or explained in an 
analysis of his character. Dickens’s ‘Tn came Mrs. Fezziwig, 
one vast substantial smile” illustrates the mingling of description 
and characterization. In ‘‘The Necklace,” De Maupassant does 
not tell us that Loisel was practical, thoughtless, and dense; he tells 
us what Loisel did and said so that we may get acquainted with 
him as we do with a person we meet. Loisel’s saying, “Ah! the 
good beef stew!” (paragraph 4), his plan to buy a gun and shoot 
larks on Sundays (paragraph 27), his remembering that he had 
to be at the Ministry by ten o’clock (paragraph 58), his systematic 
search for the necklace (paragraphs 73, 76), and his suggesting 
to his wife that she write an untruth to Madame Forestier (para¬ 
graph 79) present dramatically his thoughtlessness and practi¬ 
cality. In portraying Madame Loisel, De Maupassant tells us 
that she was pretty and charming, had no dowry, suffered endless 
misery because of her poverty, dreamed of palaces and banquets, 
had no fine dresses or jewels, loved nothing but luxuries, desired 
to be envied and sought after, wept days after visiting her rich 
friend, asked for as large a sum for a dress as she thought her 
husband would give her, tried on all Madame Forestier’s orna¬ 
ments and hesitated about giving them back, tried to escape from 
the ball before other women noticed her wraps, had not strength 
to think or to go to bed after the necklace was lost, and for ten 
years endured hard work and poverty with real heroism. Most of 
these incidents and characteristics impress upon our minds her 
outstanding trait, her desire for luxuries and admiration. 



SHORT STORY 363 

Point of View 

Before writing the first word of a story, one should decide whose 
story it is or who should tell the story. The common narrators 
are a major, a minor, or a silent character who tells the story in 


Courtesy of the Saturday Evening Post" 

the first person; the author who tells the story objectively; and 
the author who looks over the shoulder of the main character and 
tells the story from that personas point of view. Stockton’s 
‘The Lady or the TigerEllis Parker Butler’s “Fleas is Fleas,” 
Mary Wilkins Freeman’s “The Revolt of ‘Mother’,” and De 








364 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Maupassant’s '^The Necklace” are examples of stories told ob¬ 
jectively in the third person. Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” 
“The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Manuscript Found in a Bot¬ 
tle,” and “The Gold Bug” are told in the first person. 

Opening 

Barrett Wendell says, “Most people have a strong impulse to 
preface something in particular by at least a paragraph of nothing 
in particular, bearing to the real matter in hand a relation not 
more inherently intimate than that of the tuning of a violin to a 
symphony.” A good beginning catches the reader’s interest. 

One can find out how to begin his story by studying the openings 
of successful stories. “The Necklace” begins with five paragraphs 
of characterizing, picturing, informing, and striking the tone. 

Freeman’s “The Revolt of ^Mother’ ” opens with dialog: 

“ ‘Father!’ 

‘What is it?’ 

‘What are them men diggin’ over there in the field for?’ ” 

Stockton’s “The Lady or the Tiger?” begins with characteri¬ 
zation: 

“In the very olden time, there lived a semi-barbaric king, whose ideas 
though somewhat polished and sharpened by the progressiveness of distant 
Latin neighbors, were still large, florid, and untrammeled, as became the 
half of him which was barbaric.” 

In “The Gold Bug,” Poe starts with setting, characterization, 
and needed explanation: 

“Many years ago I contracted an intimacy with a Mr. William Le- 
grand. He was of an ancient Huguenot family, and had once been 
wealthy; but a series of misfortunes had reduced him to want. To avoid 
the mortification consequent upon his disasters, he left New Orleans, the 
city of his forefathers, and took up his residence at Sullivan’s Island, 
near Charleston, South Carolina.” 

Brand Whitlock’s “The Gold Brick” begins with incident and 
characterization: 

“Ten thousand dollars a year! Neil Kittrell left the office of the 
Morning Telegraph in a daze.” 



SHORT STORY 


365 

The rule is to begin a character story with character delineation, 
an atmosphere story with setting, and a plot story with incident 
or dialog. When in doubt, begin with action and tuck in a bit at 
a time the antecedent explanation, characterization, and setting. 

Often as in Poe’s ^‘The Cask of Amontillado” the first part of 
the story is omitted. Poe does not include the incidents which 
made Montresor desire revenge. This story is represented by 
the numbers 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; incidents 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 are 
omitted. A safe rule for the opening is to start as near to the 
climax as possible. 

The order of the detective story is 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 
3, 2, 1. The author begins with the conunission of a crime and 
gradually unwinds the tangled incidents until he reaches the first 
one and hence completes the solution of the problem. 

Practice 7 

1. Study the openings of a dozen stories. How many open with inci¬ 
dent? With dialog? With setting? With characterization? With 
necessary antecedent explanation? With a general proposition, or theme, 
which the story will illustrate? With a combination of these? 

2. Write the opening of your short story. 

Dialog 

Although uncritical readers like a story with ^fiots of con¬ 
versation in it,” a story by a beginner usually contains little dialog. 
Conversation is hard to write, and no conversation is preferable 
to stilted, unnatural talk that does not fit the characters. Like¬ 
wise conversation which does not serve a purpose—characterize 
or advance the plot, for example—should be rigidly excluded 
from the story. 

To learn to write dialog one must get out among people, know 
them, and also observe carefully the details of their speech— 
coherence, point, accuracy, length of sentences, type of sentences, 
fluency, vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, tone, mannerisms. 

The writer of conversation needs also to present attractively 
what he observes. Instead of a string of he saids and he replieds, 
he can use for variety grunted, roared, snarled, sneered, maintained^ 


366 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


contradicted, explained with icy precision, cried angrily, shouted, 
corrected, asked, drawled, whispered, volunteered, yelled, mumbled, 
rejoined, retorted, ventured, muttered, stammered, snickered, boasted, 
chuckled, dashed in, exclaimed, gasped, growled, or hinted darkly. 

The introductory he said, he mumbled, or he shouted may be 
placed at the beginning of the speech, in the middle, or at the end. 
When there is no possibihty of confusion, the introductory ex¬ 
pression is omitted. Paragraphs 12, 44, 48, 67-71, 108-115 of 
‘‘The Necklace” are illustrations. 

Other ways to make dialog natural, interesting, and sprightly 
are by having the speeches short, using freely for most characters 
contractions and colloquiahsms, having one speaker break in on 
another before a speech is completed, letting a character ask 
another question instead of answering the question asked, and 
having a person anticipate a question and answer it before it is 
asked. 

Practice 8 

1. What variations of he said and he replied are there in “The Neck¬ 
lace”? Illustrate variations in the placing of the introductory expression. 

2. Study the conversation of “The Necklace.” Show how it is made 
natural, interesting, and hvely. Is there any talk out of character, or 
wooden or dull talk? 

3. Write a conversation that will form a part of the story for which you 
have already written the action-plot and the opening. 

Pictures and Contrast 

One way to make the story seem real is by picturing vividly 
but tersely the characters and the setting. To describe a real 
place or person clearly one must first study the scene or person, 
and to paint an imaginative picture one must first have a clear, 
detailed picture in his mind. The writer who does not observe or 
see in imagination the sparse hair, gray beard, wrinkled face, 
faded coat, square jaw, and keen, kindly eyes of the heroic failure 
in his story will write a fairy story about phantoms, not real 
people. Flaubert tells us when we “pass a grocer seated at his 
shop door and a janitor smoking his pipe” to picture them so that 



SHORT STORY 367 

no one can ‘^confound them with any other grocer or any other 
janitor.’^ 

Another device for making clear and forceful what one has to 
say is contrast. De Maupassant contrasts the stolid Loisel with 
his luxury-loving wife, Madame Loisel’s actual surroundings with 
what she wanted, and her evenmg of triumph with her ten years 
of drudgery. 

Practice 9 

1. In ^‘The Necklace” what are two illustrations of the fact that De 
Maupassant was an observer? 

2. Find two vivid pictures in ^The Necklace.” 

3. What contrast is expressed or implied in paragraph 3 of “The 
Necklace”? In paragraph 4? In paragraph 23? In paragraph 50? In 
paragraph 52? In paragraph 59? In paragraph 94? In paragraph 99? 
In paragraph 101? 

Compression and Movement 

Of De Maupassant’s stories Brander Matthews says, ^^They are 
simple, most of them; direct, swift, inevitable, and inexorable in 
their straightforward movement. If art consists in the suppression 
of nonessentials, there have been few greater artists in fiction 
than De Maupassant. In his short stories there is never a word 
wasted, and there is never an excursus.” In “The Necklace,” 
De Maupassant by omitting a great mass of nonessential details 
and delineating character and setting with a few swift strokes 
tells the tragedy of a hfetime in a few pages. 

Short stories vary in length from 1500 to 8000 words, with a few 
even shorter or longer. A rough draft, however, is ordinarily 
longer than a finished composition. If therefore your story 
after the first writing is 2500 words long, you will probably make 
it livelier and more entertaining by cutting out 500 words in 
the revision. 

Practice 10 

QUESTIONS ON “THE NECKLACE” 

1. Show that paragraph 1 is a good example of compression. 

2. In paragraph 3 how many words are used to show the poverty of the 
Loisels? 


368 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


3. Why does the author give only two paragraphs to the ball? Why 
doesn’t he paint a detailed picture of the ballroom? 

4. Note the compression in paragraphs 38, 39, 40, 41, 69, 70, 71, 80, 
81, 103, 104. Which of these passages express emotion? Does a person 
when he feels deeply commonly use long, roundabout sentences, or short, 
direct sentences? 

Plausibility 

Because ‘‘truth is stranger than fiction,” to say of an incident 
in a short story that it really happened is not proof that it is 
plausible. To be plausible an incident must seem true. In other 
words, in a story every effect has a cause; every act grows out of 
the character delineated and the preceding action. Although no 
one probably ever lived on a desert island in the manner depicted 
in Robinson Crusoe, yet because of the minuteness of detail and 
absolute naturalness the story has the air of truth, and is really 
more plausible than are many happenings recorded in the news¬ 
papers. Although no New England woman ever moved into a 
new barn, nevertheless because of Mr. Penn’s thoughtlessness and 
obstinacy, his building a new barn, Mrs. Penn’s righteous indig¬ 
nation, Nanny’s approaching wedding, and Mr. Penn’s going to 
Vermont to buy a horse, Mrs. Freeman’s “The Revolt of ‘Mother’ ” 
seems real. 

Style 

In “How ‘Flint and Fire’ Started and Grew,” Dorothy Can- 
field tells how she wrote one of her stories. After “the materials 
were ready, the characters fully alive” in her mind “and entirely 
visualized, even to the smoothly braided hair of Ev’leen Ann,” 
she scribbled the story as rapidly as her pencil could go. “After 
this came a period of steady desk work, of rewriting, compression, 
more compression,” rewriting of “clumsy, ungraceful phrases,” 
and revision for correctness, suggestiveness, accuracy, movement, 
proportion, and sound. 

In answer to the question “How can I acquire style?” Robert 
W. Neal says, “Don’t try to . . . directly. Strive rather to report 
accurately what you observe and think and feel.” Although 
struggling for a literary style is likely to lead to affectation and 


SHORT STORY 


369 


emptiness, by taking pains one can acquire the knack of building 
varied, lively, forceful, and natural sentences. Writing ^‘The 
Necklace’^ in one’s own words without referring to the story, and 
then comparing one’s sentences with De Maupassant’s simple, 
lucid, accurate, crisp, terse language is a good exercise. 

Title 

A good title should be brief, definite, and original, should be 
suitable for the story, and should excite curiosity. Comparatively 
few titles of short stories are more than five words long. ^^All Is 
Not Gold That Glitters” is both long and hackneyed. Definite, 
specific, suggestive titles are more attractive than vague, general, 
commonplace ones. “A Hero,” ^‘A Russian Tale,” ‘Triendship” 
“Decisions,” “The Unknown,” and “His High Position” are 
general and commonplace. Of course, the title should, like the 
opening, attract readers. 


Practice 11 

1. Which of these are good titles: “Wee Willie Winkle,” “The Gold 
Bug,” “Peg’s Dilemma,” “The Vital Point,” “An Agreement and Its 
Outcome,” “The Lady or the Tiger?” “The Hired Baby,” “Gallegher,” 
“Percival Galahad Barnose,” “A Love Story,” “College Friends,” 
“Thoughtless,” “Genius Rewarded,” “The Purloined Letter,” “A Rig- 
time Lady,” “The Elephant Remembers,” “That Brute Simmons,” “The 
Monkey’s Paw,” “A Gay Old Dog,” “The Gray Ghost”? Why? 

2. From magazines or a book of short stories select six excellent titles. 

Practice 12 

Some questions on ^‘The Moon Coin”: 

1. Is plot, character, theme, or atmosphere conspicuously emphasized? 

2. Show that the story has (or has not) a single predominating incident. 

3. Has it a single preeminent character? Prove. 

4. Does the story give a unified impression? What is it? 

5. How much time does the story cover? Does the length of time 
destroy the unity of the story? 

6. What is the setting? Does the entire action happen in one place? 
If not, do unnecessary changes of scene destroy the unity? 


370 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


7. In the plot what is the cause or inciting impulse, what are the inci¬ 
dents, and what is the effect or climax? 

8. Show that the plot is (or is not) compressed. 

9. What is the outstanding trait of each character? 

10. Do the characters show their traits by their speech and acts? Does 
the author describe, analyze, and explain the characters? 

11. Is use made of local color? If so, where? 

12. Is there a struggle or conflict? T^at is it? 

13. Is the plot complicated? If so, how? 

14. If the story has suspense, show how it is secured. 

15. Has the story a theme? If so, what is it? 

16. Who is the narrator? 

17. How does the story open? 

18. Is there any variation from the chronological order 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 
7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12? 

19. What proportion of the story is dialog? 

20. Show that the dialog is (or is not) natural, interesting, and 
sprightly. What substitutes for said and replied are used? 

21. What pictures are there? 

22. What use is made of contrast? 

23. Is the story plausible? 

24. Use five adjectives to characterize the style. 

25. Show that the title is (or is not) a good one. 

THE MOON COIN! 

By Mildred Freeman 

♦ 

The full moon is a golden coin. Any one who can steal it out of the 
sky can buy with it his heart’s desire. 

Once upon a time a princess and a woodcutter’s lad nearly did steal 
the moon. The princess’s name was Ingrid, and she lived in a far country 
at the edge of fairyland. One of her sisters was married to a prince of 
India and one to the king of Spain. Her brother, who was also married, 
was king of the land. 

Ingrid herself, however, was not married, nor did she rule any one. It 
seemed to her that she was the most useless person* in the world. The 
queen, her brother’s wife, who looked like a gimlet, declared that the 
uselessness was not a seeming but a fact. Moreover, it apparently was 
her policy to keep useless things out of sight, for Ingrid was left a great 
deal to herself. 

^Winner of the first prize in a national contest. Printed first in the Student- 
"Written Number of the Scholastic and later in Saplings, Third Series. Copyrighted 
by the Scholastic Publishing Company. 


SHORT STORY 


371 


It was her custom when alone to sit with her embroidery at a window 
of the palace facing the mountains to the southeast. When she grew tired 
of the embroidery, as often happened, she took an old book of magic that 
a wizard had given her and went down into the garden below and climbed 
onto the high palace wall. On the inside of the wall there was a big oak 
tree with low spreading branches, really quite easy to climb when one 
had acquired the knack of the thing. 

From the walks top Ingrid could see more of the mountains and some 
trees and a bit of road leading into a wood. The big oak spread its 
branches over her as she sat there, and flecks of sunlight sifted through 
the leaves and fell on her plaited golden hair and her soft blue dress and 
on the black characters of the great book of magic in her lap. 

The thick foliage protected her—or so she thought—so that she could 
not be seen from the road. No one ever passed along it, anyway, except 
a tall woodcutter’s lad in a brown smock with a load of faggots and some¬ 
times an axe over his shoulder. Since he was the only one to pass, the 
princess got to know him rather well in all his outward habits. He never 
wore a hat and his thick dark-brown hair was rough and curly, glowing 
here and there with coppery lights. It made the princess want to touch it 
with her hands and smooth it down. 

He usually came by towards evening. Sometimes he whistled and 
strode along blithely; sometimes he was pensive and hummed a melan¬ 
choly half-remembered little tune or did not hum at all; then again he 
walked frowning, deep in thought, or quickly, apparently pondering many 
things. Once he stopped, hearing a bird in Ingrid’s tree, and looked up 
for the singer." His eyes were brown and shining under dark slender brows. 
Ingrid shrank back upon the wall, fearing lest he see her. 

She often wondered about him, puzzling over what his thoughts might 
be, imagining what sort of house he had and what his mother was like— 
if he had one—and even wondering what he ate. 

Then one day in the book of magic she read about the full moon. She 
read about its being a golden coin and learned how it might be stolen by a 
person who climbed to the top of a mountain—one of these very moun¬ 
tains to the southeast, for instance—and caught the moon just as it was 
rising. The fairies, the Little People of the hills, said the book, were 
jealous of human beings for having souls and would do everything in 
their power to prevent a person from stealing the moon and so getting 
his heart’s desire. 

There was, however, a magic word as beautiful as all beauty, containing 
within itself the fulfillment of life; and it, when said, would make the 
fairies powerless. The word was written in black letters in the book. 
Ingrid said it out loud, and it was bright and flashing like a silver sword. 
A fairy, bent on some business of his own among the wild flowers growing 


372 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


by the road that ran by the wall, heard it with his pointed ears and trem¬ 
bled all over his small body. 

Ingrid, of course, did not even see him. She sat on the wall and leaned 
against the trunk of the tree and thought, gazing at the blue sky above 
the mountains. As she thought, she grew troubled; for she did not know 
what her heart’s desire was. There were things that she wanted, but she 
wanted them only with her mind or her senses or the fringe of her heart. 
Not one of them could really be called a heart’s desire. Now, as she 
puzzled, she heard a familiar step on the road below, and, looking down, 
beheld the woodcutter’s lad passing beneath, his axe and a bundle of 
faggots on his back; and she had her idea. Before she knew what she did, 
she had, book of magic and everything, jumped off the wall—^which was 
fully ten feet high, and it’s a wonder she didn’t hurt herself—and was 
running down the road after him crying, “Oh, please wait!” catching up 
with him as he turned around. 

He looked down at her, at her wide blue eyes and the golden braids of 
her hair with the net of seed pearls on her head, and her blue silk dress 
shot with gold with the golden girdle around her hips, and the great gold- 
clasped book of magic in her arms; and an odd expression of mingled 
admiration and astonishment came over his face. 

“Good afternoon,” said the priucess. 

“Good afternoon,” answered the woodcutter’s lad dazedly, staring 
at her. 

“Would you like to have your heart’s desire?” asked the princess. 
“What is your name?” 

“Who would not?” answered the woodcutter’s lad, smiling suddenly so 
that she smiled back. “My name is Diccon. What is yours?” 

“I am Ingrid. I can tell you how you can get your heart’s desire before 
tomorrow’s sun rises—if you will come with me.” 

“You—^you what? Here, do not stand there looking at me so. You are 
something I dreamed. I am afraid that in a minute I will wake up. Sit 
on my bundle of faggots, and tell me how I can get my heart’s desire.” 
He set the faggots down by the roadside, and the princess sat on them 
with the book of magic open on her knees. 

“This is a book of magic,” she said to Diccon, who listened eagerly; 
and she told him what was written about the full moon. 

When she had finished Diccon sat back on his heels and gazed at the 
mountains. “To steal it as it rises,” said he. “The moon will be full 
tonight, Ingrid.” 

“Yes,” answered the princess. “And it is nearly sunset. It will be 
rising.” 

“Well,” said Diccon. “Shall we go get it?” 

“Oh, yes,” cried Ingrid, jumping up. “Do let us! We cannot help but 
reach the mountain top if we hurry. The Little Pebple cannot harm us, 


SHORT STORY 373 

for we have the magic word which is bright and flashing like a silver sword. 
It will frighten them away.” 

'Tine!” replied Diccon gayly. “We’ll scare them out of their little 
green jackets. But first we will leave my axe and faggots and your book 
here in this hollow tree until we get back; for we cannot carry them.” 
So saying, he hid the things, and he and Ingrid set out toward the 
mountains. 

After they had gone a little way along the tree-shaded road, Diccon 
stopped, running his fingers through his rough curls, and looked down at 
the princess. “How is it that we are going to get my heart’s desire? Do 
you not want yours?” 

“Why, you see,” answered Ingrid, “I thought and thought, and there 
are things which I wish for with my mind and things which I wish for 
with my senses and the fringe of my heart; but there is nothing for which 
I ache in my heart’s heart so that there is a crying all the time inside of 
me for want of the thing. Therefore, I came to you. What is your heart’s 
desire?” 

Diccon laughed at her for her seriousness and began to walk on again. 
“My heart’s desire?” asked he. “My heart’s desire? Oh, when I get the 
moon coin, I shall buy me a new axe, or perhaps a cow and four pigs that I 
may be a farmer instead of a woodcutter’s lad. And I will buy a fine suit 
of clothes and a hat with a red cock’s feather, and a silk dress and a fine 
linen kerchief for my mother.” 

“Oh, but,” protested Ingrid, “you no more have a real heart’s desire 
than I have. These are all unimportant things. You do not want them 
with your heart’s heart.” 

“No?” asked he. “And who are you to say what is in the heart of the 
heart of a man? How do you know I do not ache for the cow, and that 
there is not a crying all the time inside of me for the four pigs? Truly 
I have longed for the hat with the red cock’s feather, and my mother has 
never had a sfik dress in all her life.” 

“I can understand about the red feather,” said Ingrid. “I know how 
I have always wanted a pair of red shoes. And surely your mother 
should have a silk dress. But,” and her laughter bubbled over, “I do not 
see how any one can ache for a cow.” 

Diccon looked at her. “In the forest where I cut wood,” said he, 
“there is a brook where the water bubbles over the stones with just such 
a sound as you made when you laughed. It is the prettiest happy sound 
in the world. I do not ache for cows when I hear it. Perhaps, though, I 
will not buy anything with the moon coin at all. Maybe I will carry it 
home and set it on the dresser, along with my mother’s three blue plates 
and the milk jug with the broken spout. I am sure it would be looking 
grand there, and no one else in the land could say he had the moon on his 
dresser. My mother tells me that I often cried for the moon when I 


374 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


was a baby. I do not doubt it. That is the trouble with babies: they are 
too much given to crying and to dribbling at the mouth.’^ 

“I would like to have seen you when you were a baby/^ said Ingrid. 
“Look, the trees are fewer, and there is more grass. We are getting onto 
the mountain. But truly, there is no use climbing it if neither of us has 
a real heart’s desire.” 

“Oh, we may think of one before we get to the top! You’re not tired, 
are you?” His brown eyes were suddenly concerned. 

“Not a bit.” 

They walked on in silence for a while, Diccon slowing his steps so as 
not to outdistance her. The sun had almost set, and the trees and stones 
on the mountain cast long shadows on the grass. In the shadows and be¬ 
hind the trees and the stones was a faint rustling and whispering where 
the Little People watched with hostile eyes these intruders in their chosen 
place. 

There is an old legend which says that the fairies once dwelt in Heaven, 
but were cast out for some crime. Whether this be true or not, they hate 
all grown-up people because human beings have souls, and fairies have 
only elemental spirits of earth and air and fire. Children they hate less; 
for the souls of children until they have tasted love or sorrow are, to some 
extent, asleep; and the Little People believe that it is possible to steal 
body and soul away to fairyland and to keep the soul always unawake. 

Because of their ancient hatred, the elves gathered numberless, en¬ 
circling Ingrid and Diccon, and followed them, beginning gradually, slowly, 
to close in upon them. 

“I had a heart’s desire this morning,” said Diccon. 

“Haven’t you it any more?” asked Ingrid, surprised. “Why?” 

“It was answered.” 

“Answered? Oh, I am glad, Diccon. What was it?” 

“It was to have a princess with eyes bluer than blue forget-me-nots and 
a pearl cap on her golden hair come down off a palace wall.” 

“How—^how did you know I was on the wall?” asked Ingrid. “You 
could not see me.” 

“Yes, I could. I could half see you when I came along the road, and 
once I looked up at a bird in the tree and saw your eyes. Do you re¬ 
member that?” 

“I see,” said Ingrid. “Yes, I remember that. I was afraid you saw 
me, but I was not sure.” 

“I have another heart’s desire now.” 

“What is it?” 

The fairies pressed in more closely, almost touching Ingrid and Diccon, 
crying shrilly in the fairy tongue, and brandishing wee, deadly spears in 
their tiny fists. “The Little People!” exclaimed Diccon. “Quick! the 
magic word! They have spells of enchantment in their spears.” 


SHORT STORY 


375 


Ingrid, frightened, said faintly the word that should have been bright 
and flashing like a silver sword. A tremor passed through the fairy ranks, 
but they continued to press nearer. Then she, believing the word had 
failed, hid her face in terror against Diccon, and her very fear made him 
fearless. He put his arm around her and said the magic word twice more, 
for he remembered that in elfin things three is always a magic number. 
The second time the word was truly bright like a silver sword; but the 
third time, as Diccon realized its meaning, it was like the ache of tears in 
one’s throat. Before it the ranks of the Little People melted away like 
snow in the sunshine. 

^‘See,” said Diccon to the princess. ^‘Look up. They are gone.” 

Ingrid wiped away the tears of relief that were wet on her lashes. ^‘1 
am a coward,” she said. ^T did not know till now how great a coward 
I am.” 

‘‘But you are not a coward. One of us had to be brave. If I had been 
the one to be frightened, you would have been the one to be brave. That 
is the way it goes.” 

They walked on, no longer molested by the fairies. Gradually the 
mountains became more steep, the vegetation scantier, and walking more 
difficult. The princess’s pearl cap fell off and her loosened fair hair curled 
in little damp ringlets around her face. Diccon took her hand to help her. 
The sun had disappeared behind the forest in the west, and a faint glim¬ 
mer began to show over the mountain where the full moon cast her first 
warning rays. 

“Hurry!” panted Ingrid, “or we will not get there in time.’^^ 

Then suddenly they were among the rocks at the mountain’s top. 
They could look over, down the great empty gulf on the other side, and 
see the round golden ^sc of the moon coin rising slowly in the emptiness. 
“There it is,” whispered Ingrid. “In a minute you will be able to catch 
it.” 

“Yes, and then I can buy my suit of clothes and my hat and my cow 
and four pigs and the silk dress for my mother, can’t I, Ingrid? Or was 
I going to keep the moon on the dresser instead?” 

“You were going to keep it on the dresser, so that no one else in the 
world could say that he had such a wonderful thing on his dresser as you.” 

There was a pause while, motionless, they watched the magic coin rise 
nearer them. “It is very close now,” said Ingrid. “I think you could 
take it if you reached far enough. Only do not fall over the edge,” she 

added anxiously. , , , arr t x i 

Diccon reached out his hand and almost touched the moon. If I take 
it,” he said, “there will be no more moon in the sky, will there?” 

“There will be stars.” 

“But, oh! Ingrid, stars are beautiful, but they are so far away and so 
cold—just little pin pricks of light away off in the dark—while the moon 


376 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


is near and warm and lovely, lovely. Think how the nights will be to 
all the people who live after us when there is no moon—^how frostily 
spangled with light, and how dark. Never will there be the young new 
moon in the sky above them, all slim and fair and palely golden—^like a 
golden princess above me on a wall.” 

“The people who live after us will never know the difference,” answered 
the princess in a shaky voice. 

“But donT you see that will be the very thing that will make such an 
act unforgivable?” 

Ingrid smiled at him with wet eyes. “Yes, I see; I was waiting for you 
to see, too.” 

They watched the moon rise higher, almost out of reach. 

“If we took it,” said Diccon, “we would be taking away part of the 
beauty of the world that we two might have a small selfish happiness. It 
would be a sin. ... I do not think heart’s desires can be bought. The 
loveliest things in all our lives are the things which just come—as Spring 
comes, ever so softly, over the dark hills in the night—at the time when 
we have stopped asking for happiness. The things that come as you 
came, slipping off the wall, when I had almost given up hope of you.” 

They let the moon go higher than any one could reach, making a 
splendor of the evening sky.— Santa Barbara (California) High 
School 

Practice 13 

1. Complete the story you have been working on, and revise it thor¬ 
oughly. 

2. Go to life for another plot. Start with a cause, an incident, an effect 
or a climax, a character, or a theme. Invent needed details. Then write 
the action-plot and the short story. 

3. Using one of the pictures in this chapter as the starting-point, write 
the action-plot and the short story. 


WHITE FEATHER’S GIFT 

On the top of a snow-covered hill under a midnight sky sprinkled with 
stars stood a little house. It was a low-lying log cabin, weighted down 
and almost hidden by a blanket of drifting snow. A thin spiral of smoke 
encircled the chimney and out of the unshuttered windows streamed a 
ray of faint, yellow candle-light. 

An Indian, gliding silently and swiftly over the encrusted ground on 
snow-shoes, came in sight of the log structure. With a feeling of curiosity 
quickened by desire of food and shelter, he moved himself toward the 
candle-light. Silently and yet more silently he approached the house. 


SHORT STORY 


377 


Pressing his beaked nose against the window-pane, the Indian looked into 
the room. The predominant feature was a great fireplace filled with roaring 
logs. It looked very inviting to the Indian, who had come a long distance 
in the cold. Before this fire on a broad-backed settle sat a man, his foot 
swathed in many wrappings. Suspended from a crane over the flame of 
burning logs, hung a kettle, the contents of which the man stirred as the In¬ 
dian hungrily watched. The howl of a distant wolf distracted the Indian’s 
rapt attention from the logs and kettle and he knocked upon the door. 

The Indian stepped inside as the door was slowly opened by a woman 
with a small baby on her arm. The woman at first started in amazement 
at the appearance of an Indian. But at the Indian’s words, ‘‘Me friend. 
Big Chief White Feather—on way to Vincennes,” she realized that he 
was of a friendly tribe. “Me hungry,” and White Feather looked long¬ 
ingly at the bubbling kettle. The woman filled a wooden porringer and 
gave the steaming bowl of mush to the Indian, who squatted down by 
the fireplace and began to eat. 

“I am sorry we have no meat to offer you. White Feather, I cut my 
foot while chopping wood, so I have not been able to hunt for many 
days,” apologized the man. 

A five year old child, who had been sitting quietly by the side of his 
father, now ventured to speak. “Daddy, this morning you said that 
tonight would be Christmas Eve. Will Santy Claus come if I hang up my 
stocking?” Before the question was finished, the little fellow had dropped 
to the floor and had begun pulling off his rude little boots. The parents 
exchanged rueful glances. 

Then the father said gently. “Elihu, I’m afraid good old St. Nick 
won’t be here this Christmas—it’s so cold and snowy.” 

The boy looked up and then bent to his lacings again, saying, “I’ll 
hang my stocking up just the same. He’s not afraid of cold.” The boy 
spoke confidently. Soon the gray yarn stocking was off. Elihu hung it 
jauntily at the edge of the fireplace and then ran off to his little trundle- 
bed. 

The parents sat in a melancholy attitude for some time. The Indian 
maintained a stolid expression, watching the faces of the other two. He 
broke the silence, “Ugh, story about Christmas.” White Feather pointed 
to the little gray stocking. 

So the father spoke simply and in child’s words that the Indian might 
understand. He told of the first Christmas, how in a lowly stable in 
Bethlehem, under a dark sky flooded with the light of one great star, 
the Christ-child was born. He related the great teachings of Christ and 
of the man, St. Nicholas, impelled by the greatest of Christ’s teachings 
love, to bring happiness and cheer into the homes of children each year. 
Then he went on to tell about Virginia, that land from which they had 


378 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


migrated to this bleak desolate North. There they had had real Christ¬ 
mases, when the tables were loaded with good things, and the children’s 
stockings were filled with gifts, and happy greetings were exchanged 
between neighbors. 

When the man had ended, the Indian uttered another “Ugh” and 
stretched himself out on the hearth. The settler and his wife quietly 
went to bed leaving the Indian asleep before the fire. 

The little house was wrapped in the silence of the snowy wilderness. 
The faint glow from the hearth outlined the little gray stocking. It 
alone kept watch on that early Christmas morning. Just as the last dull 
embers of the dying fire log fell apart on the hearth, the Indian awoke 
from a deep sleep. His thoughts reverted to the stories of Christ and 
St. Nicholas, and he arose. Taking some articles from the folds of his 
blankets. White Feather stepped to the little gray stocking hanging so 
confidently before the fireplace and slipped into it a string of wampum 
beads, a beautifully embroidered belt, and four bright feathers. Then 
gliding silently towards the door, he noiselessly opened it and stepped 
into the cold outer world. 

The stars were growing dimmer in the winter sky. The ground was 
covered with a blanket of new snow and a hushed quiet prevailed. The 
Indian quickly disappeared into the forest. 


Just as the first signs of daybreak were appearing over the tops of the 
cedar-covered hills in the east. White Feather returned bearing two 
great turkeys slung over his shoulder. Again noiselessly opening the 
door White Feather laid the turkeys gently on the puncheon floor, and 
left beside them a little white feather. 

Then he disappeared down the hill into the gray dawn with a real 
Christmas feeling in his savage heart.— Pupil’s Theme 

Bloomimgton (Indiana) High School 

Books about Story-Writing 

If you wish to continue the study of short-story writing, you 
will profit by reading one of these books: 

Blanche Colton Williams: A Handbook on Story Writing 
J. Berg Esenwein: Writing the Short Story 
Robert W. Neal: Short Stories in the Making 
Robert W. Neal: Today’s Short Stories Analyzed 
Glenn Clark: A Manual of the Short Story Art 
Walter B. Pitkin: How to Write Short Stories 

Evelyn May Albright: The Short Story—Its Principles and Structure 



SHORT STORY 


379 



Courtesy of the Theater Guild 

Clayton Hamilton: Materials and Methods of Fiction 
A. S. Hoffman: Fiction Writers on Fiction Writing 
Ring W. Lardner: How to Write Short Stories—with Samples 
John T. Frederick: A Handbook of Short Story Writing 

Volumes of Short Stories 

T. B. Aldrich: Marjorie Daw 
J. L. Allen: The Flute and Violin 
Atlantic Narratives. Series I and II 
J. M. Barrie: A Window in Thrums 
Arnold Bennett: Tales of Five Towns 
H. C. Bunner: Short Sixes 
R. H. Davis: Gallegher and Other Stories 
Mrs. M. W. Deland: Old Chester Tales 
A. C. Doyle: Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 
Mary Wilkins Freeman: A New England Nun 
Hamlin Garland: Main Traveled Roads 
Bret Harte: The Luck of Roaring Camp 
Nathaniel Hawthorne : Twice Told Tales 



380 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


0. Henry: The Four Million, Options 
W. W. Jacobs: Many Cargoes 
Rudyard Kipling: Lifers Handicap 
Stephen Leacock: Nonsense Novels 
Guy be Maupassant: The Odd Number 
T. N. Page: In Ole Virginia 

E. A. Poe: Poe’s Complete Works 

R. L. Stevenson: Stevenson’s Short Stories 

F. R. Stockton: The Lady or the Tiger? 

Henry VAN Dyke: The Ruling Passion 
Anzia Yezierska: Hungry Hearts 

B. A. Heydrick, ed. : Americans All 
H. C. ScHWEiKERT, ed. : Short Stories 
Alexander Jessup, ed.: American Short Stories 
Rosa M. R. Mikels, ed.: Short Stories for High Schools 
William Dean Howells, ed.: The Great Modern American Stories 
Blanche Colton Williams, ed.: A Book of Short Stories 
Frederick H. Law, ed.: Modern Short Stories 
Stuart P. Sherman, ed.: A Book of Short Stories 
James F. Royster, ed.: American Short Stories 
J. Berg Esenwein, ed.: Short Story Masterpieces 
BrandEr Matthews, ed.: The Short Story 
Sherwin Cody, ed.: The World’s Best Short Stories 
Charles Sears Baldwin, ed.: American Short Stories 
Julian Hawthorne, ed.: Library of the World’s Best Mystery and 
Detective Stories 



VERSE 


411 


3. Find another example of free verse and of rhythmical prose, 
bring them to class, and read them aloud. 

Scrapbook 

Who is your favorite poet? How many of his poems do you 
know? What other poets do you like? How many poets do you 
know? A scrapbook in which you paste good poetry clipped from 
newspapers and magazines will help you to become acquainted 
with the best contemporary poetry. 

TEST 

In each of the following choose the line or lines you consider the 
best conclusion for each selection. On your answer paper indicate 
your choices by writing the number of each—1(6), for example. 

1. No man can choose what coming hours may bring 
To him of need, of joy, of suffering; 

But what his soul shall bring unto each hour 

(а) Such gifts he can build into a great tower. 

(б) Can make him lovely as the springtime flower. 

(c) To meet its challenge—^this is in his power. ——- 

(d) Can make him supreme in his own secret bower. 

2. Whatever the theme, the maiden sang 

As if her song could have no ending; 

I saw her singing at her work, 

And o’er the sickle bending; 

I listened, motionless and still; 

And, as I mounted up the hill, 

(а) The music in my heart I bore. 

Long after it was heard no more.-^ 

(б) The song still remained in my heart, 

Long after we were far apart. 

(c) Many years in my heart I bore 
The melody I could hear no more. 

(d) The music in my heart I bore. 

Although the notes I could hear no more. 

3. The Colonel’s son, he rides the mare and Kamal’s boy the dun, 

(a) And two have come back to Fort Bukloh where there went forth 

but one. 



412 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


(6) And to Fort Bukloh two came back, where forth went only one. 

(c) And on and on they go until the battle’s fought and won. 

(d) They ride and ride through thick and thin, until the prize they 

sought is won. 

4. And the breakers, 

Lilce young and impatient hounds, 

(а) Sprang with rough joy on the shrinking sand. 

(б) Leaped and gamboled on the wave-lashed sand. 

(c) Eagerly lapped the pebble-strewn sand. 

(d) Frisked playfully on the golden sand_ 

5. And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, 

And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; 

And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, 

(а) Has shriveled like a rabbit when a lion hath roared! 

(б) Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!-^ 

(c) Is shallow as waters that flow through the ford! 

(d) Hath dwindled and broken as evil before the Lord! 

6. Vice is a monster of so frightful mien. 

As, to be hated, needs but to be seen; 

Yet seen too oft, familiar with his face, 

(а) His every whim we gratify at a lively pace. 

(h) All sense of shame we from our souls soon chase, 

(c) We learn to like the ruffian’s brute grimace. 

(d) We first endure, then pity, then embrace.. 

7. The blessed damosel leaned out 

From the gold bar of heaven; 

Her eyes were deeper than the depth 
Of waters stilled at even; 

She had three lilies in her hand, 

{a) And in her hair shone stars from heaven. 

(б) And the stars in her hair were seven. . 

(c) And a turban of beaming stars seven. 

(d) And a helmet of brightest stars seven. 

8. For while the rabble with their thumb-worn creeds, 

Their large professions and their little deeds. 

Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps! 

(а) And now the meanest tyrant a harvest reaps. 

(б) From pole to pole injustice quickly creeps. 

(c) Mankind most surely tares and thistles reaps. 

(d) Wrong rules the land, and waiting justice sleeps! 


t 


VERSE 


413 


9. Ambition’s like a circle on the water, 

Which never ceases to enlarge itself, 

(а) Until it reaches the banks of the river. 

(б) Till it include the entire universe. 

(c) Till by broad spreading it disperse to nought.- 

(d) Until it perishes on some distant sandy beach- 

10. I travelled among unknown men. 

In lands beyond the sea; 

Nor, England, did I know till then 

(а) How sincerely I loved thee. 

(б) How much my country means to me. 

(c) That my country is the home of the free. 

(d) What love I bore to thee. 


CHAPTER XVIII 

READING AND RECITING 

Importance 

Dr. Henry van Dyke says that poetry is never fully appreciated 
until it is heard in the human voice. Longfellow says, ^‘Of equal 
honor with him who writes a grand poem is he who reads it 
grandly”; Tennyson, ‘A poem is only half a poem until it is well 
read”; Ruskin, ^^If I could have a son or daughter possessed with 
but one accomplishment in life, it should be that of good reading”; 
Carlyle, ^‘We are all poets when we read a poem well.” Along 
with music and art, reading aloud has an important place in the 
home. 

Thought and Feeling 

Two rules cover the subject of reading: (1) Get the thought and 
the feeling; (2) Give the thought and the feeling. For unemotional 
matter the rules are: (1) Get the thought; (2) Give the thought. 

Thought-Getting 

The way to dig out the thought of a complicated, abstruse, or 
elliptical passage is explained in the chapter headed “Precis, 
Reports, and Examinations.” Probably half the failures in school 
are due directly or kidirectly to silent-reading difficulty. 

Thought-Giving 

In the eighth chapter of Nehemiah the reading of the law is 
described as follows: “So they read in the book of the law distinctly, 
and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.” 
To give the thought, it is necessary first to understand what you 
are reading; secondly, by distinct articulation, inflection, empha¬ 
sis, and time to give the sense; and finally to put into the reading 
enough intellectual vigor, vim, vivacity, and vitality to make 
414 


READING AND RECITING 


415 


people understand what you are reading. William Winter says, 
^‘To convey your author’s meaning correctly you must, of course, 
first correctly grasp it; and then in speaking you must cause it to 
well up in your mind, as though for the first time.” It is not 
enough to read so that people can understand; make them under¬ 
stand whether they will or not. 

Practice 1 

Read aloud the selections on pages 202-208. Make every idea 
clear to a rather stupid, slightly deaf pupil on the back seat. 

Getting and Giving the Feeling 

Most literature appeals to the feeling also. It is easy to pretend 
to have the feeling of a selection, but it is also easy for an audience 
to distinguish sham joy, sorrow, remorse, or indignation from the 
genuine emotion. Audiences are not fooled by elocutionary tricks. 
To get and give the feeling of a selection, the reader must have 
imaginative sympathy. He must see the pictures vividly and 
must also connect himself with the happenings. 

Practice 2 

Get and give the thought and the feeling of these passages and 
of ‘‘The World Is Too Much with Us” on page 206 and “I Am an 
American” on page 408. Think, imagine, feel. 

“To this one standard make your just appeal; 

Here lies the golden secret—Learn to feel” 

1. The year’s at the spring. 

And day’s at the morn; 

Morning’s at seven; 

The hillside’s dew-pearled; 

The lark’s on the wing; 

The snail’s on the thorn; 

God’s in His heaven— 

All’s right with the world!— Browning 

2. Is this a dagger which I see before me. 

The handle toward my hand?—Come, let me clutch thee, 

I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. 


416 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible 
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but 
A dagger of the mind, a false creation. 

Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?— Shakespeare 

3. From scenes like these, old 
Scotia’s grandeur springs. 

That makes her lov’d at home, rever’d abroad.— ^Burns 

4. Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note, 

As his corse to the rampart we hurried; 

Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot 
O’er the grave where our hero we buried.— ^Wolfe 

5. Who is the man that, in addition to the disgraces and mischiefs of 
the war, has dared to authorize and associate to our arms the tomahawk 
and scalping-knife of the savage?—to call into civilized alliance the wild 
and inhuman inhabitant of the woods?—to delegate to the merciless 
Indian the defense of disputed rights, and to wage the horrors of this 
barbarous war against our brethren? My lords, these enormities cry 
aloud for redress and punishment.— Chatham 

6. It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen of the Congress, 
which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, 
many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing 
to lead this great, peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and 
disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. 
But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things 
which we have always carried nearest our hearts.— ^Wilson 

7 . In Flanders fields the poppies blow 
Between the crosses, row on row. 

That mark our place, and in the sky. 

The larks, still bravely singing, fly. 

Scarce heard amid the guns below. 

We are the dead; short days ago 
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow. 

Loved and were loved, and now we lie 
In Flanders fields. 

Take up our quarrel with the foe! 

To you from failing hands we throw 
The torch; be yours to hold it high! 

If ye break faith with us who die. 

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow 
In Flanders fields.— McCrae 


417 


READING AND RECITING 
Ways of Expressing Thought and Feeling 

Before reading aloud, it may be wise for the student to do mare 
than decide what the thought and the feeling are. He may select 
the emphatic words, indicate the phrasing or the inflection, and 
decide what time, pitch, force, and quality will best express the 
thought and the emotion. 

Phrasing 

A phrase presents a single or simple idea in a group of words so 
closely united in oral expression that they seem almost one long 
word. The phrase or group is important in reading, because it is 
the unit of expression. We read and recite, not by syllables, words, 
or sentences, but by groups of related words called phrases. Much 
reading aloud is necessary to establish the habit of looking quickly 
ahead to get the meaning. 

Phrasing depends upon the thought, not upon the part of speech, 
the punctuation, or the breath supply. A punctuation mark may 
fall within a phrase; the end of a phrase is often not marked by 
punctuation. Common mistakes are pausing according to punc¬ 
tuation instead of meaning and pausing to get breath rather than 
to group the ideas. Another fault is the failure to think out and 
express with the voice the relationship between phrases. In such 
reading the individual units are not tied together in a larger whole. 

Examples. 

1. The past | rises before me | like a dream.— Ingeksoll 

2. Thank God | every morning when you get up [ that you have some¬ 
thing to do that day \ which must be done | whether you like it or 
not. I Being forced to work | and forced to do your best | will breed in 
you 1 a hundred virtues | which the idle never know.— ^Kingsley 

Sometimes two different phrasings are equally good. In the 
above selection, for example, will breed in you a hundred virtues 
may be read as one phrase. Use shorter phrases in reading subject 
matter hard for the audience to understand and in emphasizing 
details. Use longer phrases for familiar subject matter and for 
giving a general impression. 


418 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Pkactice 3 

Indicate the phrasing in the following and then read the selec¬ 
tions. Give the thought and the feeling. 

1 . To be honest, to be kind, to earn a little and to spend a little less, to 
make upon the whole a family happier for his presence, to renounce when 
that shall be necessary and not be embittered, to keep a few friends but 
these without capitulation, above all on the same grim conditions to keep 
friends with himself, here is a task for all that a man has of fortitude and 
delicacy.—S tevenson 

2. It is only when the reasonable and practicable are denied that men 
demand the unreasonable and impracticable; only when the possible is 
made difficult that they fancy the impossible to be easy.— Lowell 

3. If thou art worn and hard beset 

With sorrows, that thou wouldst forget, 

If thou wouldst a lesson that will keep 

Thy heart from fainting and thy soul from sleep, 

Go to the woods and hills! No tears 

Dim the sweet look that nature wears.— Longfellow 

4. The wreck had evidently drifted about for many months; clusters 
of shellfish had fastened about it, and long seaweed flaunted at its sides. 
But where, thought I, is the crew? Their struggle has long been over; 
they have gone down amidst the roar of the tempest; their bones lie 
whitening in the caverns of the deep. Silence—oblivion—^like the waves, 
have closed over them; and no one can tell the story of their end.— Irving 


Emphasis 

Emphasis is any means by which a speaker calls particular at¬ 
tention to important words or ideas. Correct emphasis therefore 
depends upon the intelligence of the reader and appeals to the 
intelligence of hearers. Because a speaker makes his important 
ideas stand out, a person remembers longer a speech he hears than 
one he reads. In a printed speech all words and ideas seem equal, 
because the type is the same for all. The daily paper, on the 
contrary, makes some ideas stand out by printing the headlines 
in larger type. Making principal ideas stand out is as important 
in a speech as in a newspaper. 


READING AND RECITING 419 

Selecting the Emphatic Word 

There are four principles for selecting the emphatic word. 
Each of the principles covers the subject, but sometimes one of 
them is more easily applied than the others. 

1. The word which represents the new idea is emphatic. The 
newcomer is introduced. 

I have proved that compulsory arbitration is sound in principle and 
shall next show that it is practicable. 

2. Emphasize words necessary for the sense. If we had a short¬ 
hand language, we could omit most prepositions, conjunctions, 
pronouns, and interjections, many adjectives and adverbs, and 
some nouns and verbs without destroying or distorting the main 
ideas to be expressed. In the question, ^‘What profession do you 
intend to enter after you have completed your schooling?’' pro¬ 
fession—schooling completed? carries the idea of the sentence. 
Hence the three words are emphatic. 

3. Emphasize words which express or suggest a contrast. Read 
aloud six times the sentence, ^‘Did father ride to the office today?” 
In the readings emphasize in turn did^ father, ride, to, office, and 
today. What is the contrast implied when the emphasis is placed 
on did? On father? On ride? On to? On offiice? On today? 

Practice 4 

Find the emphatic words in the following sentences. Then 
read aloud the sentences. 

1. To err is human; , to forgive, divine.— Pope 

2. I fancy it is just as hard to do your duty when men are sneering at 
you as when they are shooting at you.—^W ilson 

3. A wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish son is the heaviness 
of his mother.— Bible 

4. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for 
granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Bacon 

4. Emphasize as in conversation. When we talk, we emphasize 
correctly without thinking about the placing of the emphasis. 
Hence know the passage; read as if you were talking; and the 
emphasis will be correct. 



420 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


RULES AND CAUTIONS 

1. Do not emphasize a word repeated unless it is repeated for the 
sake of emphasis. 

2. Do not emphasize a modifier at the expense of the word modified. 
It is sometimes said that we should emphasize nouns and verbs, 
never adjectives and adverbs. This is an overstatement, because 
emphasis depends upon the thought, not upon the part of speech, 
and occasionally an adverb or a preposition expresses or implies a 
contrast. 

3. Do not speak as if all words were created free and equal.” 
If a speaker tries to emphasize every word, he merely wears him¬ 
self out and makes nothing emphatic. Subordinate articles, prep¬ 
ositions, conjunctions, and other unimportant words. A sentence 
with all words made emphatic is like an army of generals without 
lieutenants, captains, corporals, or privates, or a country of 
mountain peaks without valleys, hills, or plateaus. 

“That voice all modes of passion can express 
Which marks the proper word with proper stress; 

But none emphatic can the speaker call 
Who lays an equal emphasis on all.’’ 

4. In poetry avoid singsong, emphasis according to rhythm re¬ 
gardless of the sense. Select the emphatic word by the four prin¬ 
ciples of emphasis; underscore these words; make them emphatic. 
This is a sure cure for singsong. 

5. Do not end the sentence feebly. If the sentence is well con¬ 
structed, it has an important idea at the end. 

6. Speak proper names with mechanical clearness. If the audience 
do not hear the name of a man or place mentioned, they will have 
little interest in what is said about him or it. 

Making a Word Emphatic 

The unusual attracts attention. The six methods of making a 
word emphatic are six changes from the manner in which the 
unimportant words of the sentence are uttered. Two or three 
methods may be combined to give added emphasis to a word. 


READING AND RECITING 


421 


1. Inflection—Si. downward stroke of the voice on the emphatic 
word. 

They are Yankees, they are Johnnies, 

They’re from North and South no more. 

{Yankees, Johnnies, North, and South are emphasized by the falling 
inflection.) 

2. A pause before or after the word to give weight to the word. 
{No more in the passage quoted is best emphasized by a pause before no.) 

The one rule for attaining perfection in any art is practice. 
(Emphasize by a pause before practice.) 

3. Time on the word. 

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this 
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the prop¬ 
osition that all men are created equal. (Give extra time to new nation, 
conceived, liberty, dedicated, all, equal.) 

4. Change of pitch. 

5. Change of volume. 

6. Change of quality. 

Young speakers often think loudness the only method of em¬ 
phasis. On the contrary inflection is the most common method:; 
and pause, the most effective method. 

Pkactice 5 

Indicate the phrasing, underscore the emphatic words, and 
read aloud: 

1. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? 
Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must 
be called in to win back our love?— Patrick Henry 

2. There are two freedoms—the false, where a man is free to do what 
he likes; the true, where a man is free to do what he ought.— ^Kingsley 

3. The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt till they are 
too strong to be broken.— Samuel Johnson 

4. As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice 
at it; as he was valiant, I honor him; but as he was ambitious, I slew him. 
There is tears for his love; joy for his fortune; honor for his valor; and 
death for his ambition.— Shakespeare 


422 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


5. The quality of mercy is not strained. 

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven 
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest; 

It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. 

’Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes 
The throned monarch better than his crown. 

His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, 

The attribute to awe and majesty, 

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; 

But mercy is above this sceptred sway; 

It is enthroned in the hearts of kings; 

It is an attribute of God Himself; 

And earthly power doth then show likest God's 
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew, 

Though justice be thy plea, consider this. 

That, in the course of justice, none of us 
Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy; 

And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 
The deeds of mercy.— Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice 

Inflection 

Inflection is a change of pitch during the utterance of the vowel 
of the accented syllable of a word. There are three inflections: 
rising /, falling \, and circumflex A V. Graceful curves in the voice 
are considered an index of culture and reflnement. 

1. The falling inflection looks backward. It indicates complete¬ 
ness, certainty, conviction, definiteness, directness, and impor¬ 
tance. 

The mud and filth of the trenches developed latent heroism. (Falling 
inflection on heroism.) 

2. The rising inflection looks forward. It indicates incomplete¬ 
ness, doubt, indefiniteness, triviality, obviousness, pleading, and 
negation followed by affirmation. 

Please let me go along. (Rising inflection on along for pleading.) 

It’s my impression that he was absent yesterday, but I am not sure. 
(Rising inflection on sure to express doubt.) 

It is not necessary to be rich to be happy. (Rising inflection on happy 
for obviousness.) 

Coherence is important in debate; in fact a formless debate is a waste of 
time. (Rising inflection after debate to indicate incompleteness.) 

What our young men need most is not book-learning, instruction, or 


READING AND RECITING 


423 


culture. It is a development of moral strength, a stiffening of the verte¬ 
brae, a cultivation of the habit of “being there.’’ (Rising inflection on 
culture because negation is followed by affirmation.) 

Practice 6 

Deliver these sentences in turn with the rising inflection and 
the falling inflection and explain the difference in meaning: 

1. I have had such a good time at your party. 

2. I am indeed grateful for your kindness. 

3. I’m sorry to have blundered so. 

4. I should be so glad to have you come to see me. 

5. I’m so glad you were elected. 

3. The circumflex inflection indicates a double action of the mind. 
In sarcasm the speaker’s words say just the opposite of what he 
means. 

Practice 7 

Use in turn the circumflex and the falling inflection on flnej 
graceful, gentlemanly and star. Explain the difference in meaning. 

1. You are a fine fellow. 

2. Isn’t he a graceful dancer? 

3. That’s what I call gentlemanly conduct. 

4. He’s a star basketball player. 

The falling glide of the circumflex may emphasize, or indicate 
that the thought is complete at the point; the rising glide, that a 
closely related idea is to follow. 

I am married to a wife. 

Which is as dear to me as life itself.— Shakespeare 

(Circumflex on wife \ .) 

Friends, our task as Americans is to strive for social and industrial 
justice, achieved through the genuine rule of the people. (Circumflex 
on justice V .) 

4. A question which begins with a verb and may be answered by 
yes or no requires the rising inflection. 

Don’t you hear the bugles play? 

5. A question which begins with an adverb or a pronoun and can¬ 
not be answered by yes or no requires the falling inflection. 


424 ENGLISH IN ACTION 

Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice 
of the people? 

6. Names and titles in direct address are usually given with a 
slight rising inflection. A falling inflection suggests formal address; 
a rising, informal conversation. 

Fellow citizens, churches and schools are the foundation of civilization 
and democracy. 

7. In alternative questions and antithetical expressions the flrst 
is given with rising inflection; the second, with falling. 

Will the people insist on efficiency in public office or be contented with 
half-hearted service? 

Practice 8 

Deliver yes, no, oh, well, why, and impossible in as many ways as you 
can. Name in each case the inflection used and explain the meaning of 
the word spoken in that way. 

Time 

The time depends upon the largeness of the thought and the 
quality of the emotion. 

1. Quick time is used to express trivial, simple, parenthetical, 
or unimportant ideas, joy, eagerness, animation, haste, excite¬ 
ment, intense anger, alarm, and indignation. 

2. Moderate time is used for most discourse that is not especially 
emotional. 

3. Slow time is used to express involved or important ideas, 
earnestness, admiration, solemnity, pathos, sympathy, reverence, 
and sublimity. Slow time may result from slow word utterance 
or long and frequent pauses. 

Six uses of the pause are: 

1. To make a word emphatic. 

2. To indicate the phrasing. 

3. To give time for the comprehension of an unusual statement 
or ideas hard to understand. 

4. To enable hearers to fix a main point. 

5. To denote change of scene or lapse of time. 

6. To show indecision. 


READING AND RECITING 

Pitch 


425 


In general high pitch corresponds with quick time; medium pitch, 
with moderate time; and low pitch, with slow time. Exceptions 
are parenthetical expressions and ideas that are known to the 
audience or are of little importance. To subordinate such ex¬ 
pressions, use lower pitch, more rapid rate, and less volume. 

Mrs. Cratchit made the gravy (ready beforehand in a little saucepan) 
hissing hot.— Dickens 

A common fault in public speaking and reading is pitching the 
voice too high. To pitch the voice properly, begin as if you were 
just making the statement very clearly to a person not far from 
you. 

Quality 

Quality refers to such characteristics of the voice as purity, 
clearness, roundness, brilliance, mellowness, openness, throatiness, 
nasality, flatness, harshness, weakness, and resonance. At all 
times the voice should be open, pure, round, and clear. 

The resonance or tone color varies with the emotion expressed. 
The affected elocutionist tries to manufacture a voice to fit the 
emotion to be expressed; the sincere reader has in mind a vivid 
picture of the scene he is describing or in which he is acting and 
expresses only what he feels. 

Variety 

Vary the rate, force, and pitch. A pleasing, straightforward 
speaker with worth-while ideas will drive people from the hall or 
lull them to sleep in their seats if he talks for half an hour without 
climaxes and other variations of the force, rate, and pitch. Real 
literature has great variety of thought and feeling. In reading, 
find this variety, and vary the rate, force, pitch, and quality to 
express it. Read subordinate ideas distinctly but quickly and 
quietly. Rise to the climaxes. 

In reading dialog, it is especially important to make the inflec¬ 
tion, emphasis, pitch, time, quality, volume, and resonance fit 
the character. A man^s voice is commonly pitched lower than a 


426 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


woman’s, and has more chest and pharynx resonance; a woman’s 
voice has more head resonance. Men in general do not have so 
great a variety of inflection as women; their speech tends more 
towards the monotone. 

Pkactice 9 

1. Explain in terms of inflection, emphasis, pitch, and quality how 
some person speaks: a grocer, a policeman, a laundress, a doctor, a newly 
rich friend, a street-car conductor, an auctioneer, a cheer leader, an 
assembly speaker, an amusing caller, a feeble old man. 

2. Why is it important for a person to hear his own voice? 

A Danger 

Time, pitch, quality, phrasing, emphasis, force, and inflection 
are methods of giving the thought and feeling; they are not sub¬ 
stitutes for getting the thought and feeling. No elocutionary trick 
can deceive an audience into believing that a reader is expressing 
a thought or feeling which he doesn’t have. 

The Eyes 

A reader may fail because he forgets the audience, forgets that 
his purpose is to instruct, convince, or entertain them. Hence it 
is a good practice to glance at the audience as frequently as 
possible, to deliver the message directly to them, and to find out 
whether they are keenly interested. 

Practice 10 

Read aloud the following selections. Apply all the suggestions 
in this chapter. 

1. I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he; 

I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three; 

^^Good speed!’’ cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew; 

^‘Speed!” echoed the wall to us galloping through; 

Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest, 

And into the midnight we galloped abreast.— Browning 

2. Shall we now 
Contaminate our fingers with base bribes, 

And sell the mighty space of our large honors 


READING AND RECITING 


427 


For so much trash as may be grasped thus? 

I had rather be a dog and bay the moon, 

Than such a Roman.— Shakespeare, Julius Ccesar 

3. What is it to be a gentleman? It is to be honest, to be gentle, to be 
generous, to be brave, to be wise; and, possessing all these qualities, to 
exercise them in the most graceful outward manner.— Thackeray 

4. Here rests his head upon the lap of earth 

A youth, to fortune and to fame unknown; 

Fair science frowned not on his humble birth. 

And melancholy marked him for her own.—G ray 

5. Strike till the last armed foe expires! 

Strike for your altars and your fires! 

Strike for the green graves of your sires, 

God and your native land!— Halleck 

6. Alone, alone, all, all alone. 

Alone on a wide, wide sea! 

And never a saint took pity on 
My soul in agony.— Coleridge 

7. Is there, for honest poverty 

That hangs his head, an’ a’ that? 

The coward-slave, we pass him by, 

We dare be poor for a’ that!— Burns 

How to Prepare a Reading or a Recitation 

(Always learn to read a selection before memorizing. Otherwise 
the incorrect delivery of the lines will be fixed by repetition.) 

1 . First read the selection through silently, 'picturing the scenes, 
the action, the speaker, and the hearers. 

2 . Think why the author wrote the selection, what were his point 
of view and purpose. A history of literature may tell you what you 
want to know about the author. 

3. Know the background. Read the entire speech, story, or 
book to get the spirit. 

4. Learn the precise meaning in the sentence of any word or 
allusion that is new to you. Sometimes a history or a mythology 
is necessary. 

5. Is there any word you can’t pronounce? Look it up. 


428 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


6. What is the central idea of the selection? What is the topic 
of each paragraph? 

7. What ideas or expressions need emphasis because they are 
new, contrasted, or most necessary to the sense? 

8. What is the dominant feeling of the selection? What changes 
in feeling are there? Why? 

9. Are there climaxes? Where? 

10. How rapidly will the audience he able to picture the story or 
grasp the facts? Don’t forget the slow thinker on the rear seat. 

11. What have you done, seen, heard, or read that makes the 
selection mean more to you? 

12. If the selection contains dialog, picture the speakers in action 
and recall or find out how such people talk. 

13. Then read aloud to one person, real or imaginary. Think the 
ideas, see the pictures, feel the emotion, and speak directly to 
him. 

14. Standing and holding the book high enough, enlarge the de¬ 
livery for the prospective audience without changing the quality of 
speech. 

15. Practice frequently, always thinking and feeling as you speak 
the words, and communicating your ideas and emotions to your 
hearers. Know the selection so well that you will read to the 
audience, not to the book. 


Pkactice 11 

Prepare to read aloud clearly and entertainingly a page or two of the 
supplementary book you are now reading. 

How to Memorize 

1. Study the selection until you understand the ideas and see 
the pictures. If necessary, use a dictionary, history, mythology, 
encyclopedia, or history of literature to find out just what the 
selection means. Then read the selection aloud, getting and 
giving the thought and the feeling. 

2. Jot down in order in the form of a rough outline the main 
ideas. Note how one idea follows another. 


READING AND RECITING 


429 


3. Thoroughly memorize this thought-skeleton. The heart of 
good memorizing is learning the ideas before memorizing the words. 

4. Ask yourself questions about the selection and answer them 
in the words of the author. 

5. Note rhyme, rhythm, repetitions, contrasts, unusual expres¬ 
sions, vivid or important words, and alliteration. 

6. Close your book and repeat as much as you can recall of the 
entire selection. When necessary, open the book to J&nd what 
comes next. Then run through the entire selection in the same 
way a number of times until you rarely need to use the book. As 
you recite, both think and feel the selection. 

7. For three or four successive days write, act, or speak the 
selection. Then at longer intervals review it. 

Practice 12 

Prepare to recite a poetical selection of at least twelve lines and to 
explain exactly how you memorized it. 






**■ V ' 









ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Part II—The Sentence and the Word 



1 




CHAPTER XIX 


THE PARTS OF THE SENTENCE 

A sentence is a word-group making complete sense. 

The subject names the person or thing spoken of. 

The predicate says something about the subject. 

A modifier changes the meaning of a word or words. 
White house differs in meaning from house; run slowly, from run. 

An adjective modifies a noun or pronoun: that book, ten men. 

An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. 

He ran rapidly. It is too warm. She spoke very softly. 

A phrase is a group of related words without subject and 
predicate. Phrases may be used as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs. 

In his introduction (adverb) Mr. Marshall of Chicago (adjective) tried 
to arouse interest (noun). 

A clause is a group of words containing a subject and a predicate. 

Although this novel was published in England many years ago (subordinate 
clause), it has only recently appeared in America (principal clause). 

A substantive is a noun or pronoun, or another part of speech 
or a word-group used like a noun. The word-group may be 
any kind of phrase or clause that is used in the place of a noun. 

The rich like to ride. 

The slain were left on the field. 

The loving are the daring. 

Playing basketball is what he likes best. 

A simple sentence has one subject and one predicate, either 
or both of which may be compound. 

Washington and Roosevelt were warriors and statesmen. 

A subordinate clause is used like a noun, an adjective, or an 
adverb. 


433 


434 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


(Noun) That he will succeed is certain. 

(Adjective) His book is one of the best advertisements that the study 
of history has received in our age. 

(Adverb) If your only word for any agreeable thing from a new pair of ear- 
muffs to the Woolworth Building is swell, you advertise every hour your 
linguistic bankruptcy. 

All other clauses are principal clauses. 

A compound sentence has two or more principal clauses. 

Every one enjoys boating, and on a hot summer night the shores of the 
lake are dotted with boats. 

1. A coordinate conjunction connects elements of equal rank. 
Common coordinate conjunctions used to connect clauses are 
and, hut, or, nor, yet, so, while, though. 

Case Uses 
Nominative 

1. The subject names that of which something is said. 

John shot a deer. 

2. The predicate nominative completes the verb and explains 
the subject. 

He is an Englishman. He seems to be an Englishman. 

3. The nominative of address names the person spoken to. 

Herbert, come here. 

4. The nominative of exclamation is a substantive used to 
show special emotion. 

0 the scoundrel! 

5. The nominative absolute, with a participle expressed or 
understood, has the force of an adverb modifier, but has no 
grammatical connection with the rest of the sentence. 

His work finished, he hurried home. 

6. An appositive is added to a substantive to explain it and 
denotes the same person or thing. 

Mr. Horton, the butcher, is here. 


435 


PARTS OF THE SENTENCE 
Objective (or Dative and Accusative) 

1. The object of a verb completes the predicate and names the 
receiver or product of the action. 

John shot a deer. 

The object of the verb answers the question, ^^Shot what?^’ 
Shot is a transitive active verb, because it has an object. (If the 
subject is acted upon, the verb is transitive passive; as. The deer 
was shot by John. If the verb has no object and if the subject is 
not acted upon, the verb is intransitive.) 

2. The indirect object is a noun or pronoun that tells to or for 
whom something is done. 

Give me a dime. 

Inserting to before an indirect object does not change the sense. 

3. Verbs of asking take two direct objects, the name of the 
person and the name of the thing (called the secondary object). 

Ask Ruth a question. 

4. A verb which takes an indirect or secondary object in the 
active voice may in the passive voice retain a direct object (called 
the retained object). 

I was given a dime. 

Ruth was asked a question. 

5. A verb regularly intransitive may take a cognate object, an 
object similar in meaning to the verb. 

He ran a race. 

6. The predicate objective (or adjunct accusative) completes 
the verb and refers to the direct object. 

We elected him president 

Inserting to he before the predicate objective does not, as a rule, 
change the sense. 

7. An adverbial objective is a noun used like an adverb. 

He is a year too young. 

Year answers the question, “How much?” 

Herbert ran a mile. 

Mile answers the question, “How far?” 


436 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


8. After verbs of making, telling, letting, wishing, expecting, 
thinking, knowing, commanding, believing, and the like, the infin¬ 
itive has a subject. 

We believed him to be guilty. 

9. The predicate of an infinitive is used after a linking verb to 
refer to the subject of the infinitive. 

We believed it to be him. 

10. The object of a preposition is connected by a preposition 
with another word. 

He went to Detroit. 

To connects went and Detroit. 

11. An appositive may be attached to a substantive in the 
objective case. 

I saw Mr. Horton, the butcher. 

Possessive (or Genitive) 

A noun or pronoun in the possessive case modifies the sub¬ 
stantive to which it is attached. 

Mr. Hamlin’s factory is closed. 

Practice 1 

Point out the subject and verb of each clause and all coordinate 
conjunctions: 

1. There was a big sign back of the ticket taker, and there was some 
difficulty in getting the tickets. (There is an expletive.) 

2. In one corner stood a marble woman and a block of granite. 

Point out predicate nominatives: 

3. Such public expression of divergent opinions is a wholesome sign. 

4. To everybody he seemed a man of rare tact and understanding. 

Point out nominatives of address: 

5. Paul, what is your favorite fishing stream? 

6. That’s your work, Marion. 

Pick out nominative absolutes: 

7. The whole delegation, the President included, lost prestige and 
influence with the foreign delegates by this lack of program. 

8. My father having died, life looked different to me. 


PARTS OF THE SENTENCE 


437 


Pick out appositives: 

9. This was John W. Weeks, Secretary of War, a graduate of the 
United States Naval Academy and later a member of its Board of Visitors. 

10. I shall discuss A. A. Milne’s satiric comedy. The Truth about 
Blayds. 

Pick out direct objects: 

11. Pain elicits fortitude and endurance; difficulty, perseverance; 
poverty, industry and ingenuity; danger, courage. 

12. It not only whitens the teeth but also wards off pyorrhea by keeping 
the gums in perfect health. 

Point out indirect objects: 

13. Here advice was given me by a clever, white-haired, young-eyed 
woman. 

14. Will you please send me the vacuum cleaner before May 10. 

Point out retained objects: 

15. I was given advice by a little shriveled-up man with a thin nose and 
a squeaky voice. 

16. After dinner I was told the answer to the conundrum. 

Point out predicate objectives: 

17. I consider him the best player on the team. 

18. In his refutation Thompson called his opponent a quibbler. 

Point out adverbial objectives: 

19. One day the following winter an invitation came to lunch with the 
President at the White House. 

20. The loghouse was completed by a paling six feet high. 

Point out objects of prepositions: 

I 21. The directing genius of the State Department sits at a large flat 
I desk in a large room on the south side of the second floor of the granite 
j pile known as the State, War, and Navy Building. 

! 22. In a long ramble of the kind, on a fine autumnal day. Rip had 

^ unconsciously scrambled to one of the highest parts of the Kaatskill 
I mountains. 

j Analysis and Syntax 

' To give the syntax is to show the relation of a word, phrase, 
or clause to the rest of the sentence. 

Analysis is showing the relationship of the parts of the sentence 
to one another. 



438 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Example. The toothless jaws taper to a rounded point. 

This is a simple declarative sentence. The toothless jaws is the 
complete subject; taper to a rounded point is the complete predicate. 
The noun jaws is the simple subject; and the verb taper is the 
simple predicate. Jaws is modified by the adjectives the and 
toothless; taper is modified by the adverbial prepositional phrase 
to a rounded point, of which to is the preposition; point, the object; 
and a and rounded, adjectives modifying point. 

Diagraming is shorthand analysis. 

Model for Written Syntax 

Father told me that he had waited patiently for the opportunity 
which came last week. 


ELEMENT 

NAME 

CONSTRUCTION OR USE 

RELATION 

Father 

noun 

subject 

of told 

told 

verb 

predicate 

of Father 

me 

pronoun 

indirect object, 
modifier 

of told 

that 

subordinate 

introduces clause 

that he had waited 


conjunction 


patiently for the op¬ 
portunity 

he 

pronoun 

subject 

of had waited 

had waited 

verb 

predicate 

of he 

patiently 

adverb 

modifier 

of had waited 

for 

preposition 

shows relation 

between had waited 
and opportunity 

the 

adjective 

modifier 

of opportunity 

opportunity 

noun 

object 

of/or 

which 

relative 

subject 

of came 


pronoun 

and refers to ante¬ 
cedent 

opportunity 

came 

verb 

predicate 

of which 

last 

adjective 

modifier 

of week 

week 

noun 

adverbial objective, 
modifier 

of came 




439 


PARTS OF THE SENTENCE 
Practice 2 

Give the syntax of all nouns, pronouns, verbs, and prepositions: 

1. Yet there was very little ease in that factory and office. 

2. No one can disgrace us but ourselves. 

3. It is never too late for one to make a fresh start in life. 

4. Whom did you wish to see? 

5. From an opening between the trees he could overlook all the lower 
country for many a mile of rich woodland. 

6. Einstein has given the world a new explanation of time and space. 

7. The world’s largest inn, the Hotel Pennsylvania, is in New York 
City. 

8. The entire garden having been hoed, Willis decided to go to the 
ball game. 

9. In many respects his attempt was a failure. 

10. We elected Arnold captain of the team. 

Practice 3 

Give the syntax of all adjectives and adverbs: 

1. Business and industry, struggling painfully out of the Slough of 
Despond, are vitally concerned in the question of wise tariff revision. 

2. On the other side he looked down into a deep mountain glen, wild, 
lonely, and shagged, the bottom filled with fragments from the im¬ 
pending cliffs, and scarcely lighted by the reflected rays of the setting sun. 

3. I want the lightest and most delicate of tackle for all trout fishing, 
having reached the place where I never employ anything heavier than a 
three-ounce delicate cementing of split-bamboo. 

4. It is urgent for all mankind to know that it is really necessary to 
live for others. 

5. My own initial experience with Roosevelt was far less dramatic. 

6. In essential qualities young folk, of course, are the same everywhere. 

Complex Sentences 

A complex sentence consists of one principal clause and one or 
more subordinate clauses. 

Subordinate clauses are of three kinds: (1) noun (or substan¬ 
tive), (2) adjective, and (3) adverb. 

A noun clause may be— 

1. The subject of a verb. 

That one should be shut out from all society is unendurable. 



440 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


2. The direct object of a verb. 

I know not what can be done. 

3. The object of a preposition. 

I will give the estate to whoever deserves it. 

4. The predicate nominative. 

The objection is that the car lacks power. 

5. An appositive. 

Many people are of the opinion that prices of clothing are too high. 

6. An adverbial objective. 

We investigate until we are positive only that we are positive of nothing. 

7. The retained object. 

I was told that a conference had been held. 

An adjective clause has the value of an adjective; hence it is 
always attached to a substantive. 

1. An adjective clause may be attached to the word it modi¬ 
fies by— 

(1) A relative pronoun. 

Fortunate is he who finds a merciful judge. 

The simple relative pronouns are who, which, what, and that, 
and rarely as and but. Unlike the other relative pronouns, what 
has no antecedent. 

(2) A subordinate conjunction. 

They found the place where the treasure had been buried. 

2. The connecting word may be omitted. 

They aroused me at the hour {at which) I desired to be called. 

An adverb clause modifies a verb, an adjective, or an adverb. 

War is an evil, because it produces human misery. 

Do they know any more about the affair than you do? 

A subordinate conjunction connects a subordinate clause with 
the clause to which it is attached. Frequently used subordinate 
conjunctions are although, as, because, if, lest, since, than, that, 
unless, whereas, whether, when, while, after, before, where, until, till, 
though, as if, for, how, why. 


PARTS OF THE SENTENCE 


441 


A compound-complex sentence has two or more principal 
clauses and one or more subordinate clauses. 

Mr. William H. Taft had played many parts in his seventy years of 
life, but it was not until his visit to England that he occupied the role for 
which heaven had ideally fitted him. 

A complex sentence in which a subordinate clause is complex 
is called complex-complex. 

Columbus was looking for India when he ran into an obstacle that 
proved to be America. 

Model for Syntax of Clauses 

1. Bird men say that the barn owl, which is found all over temperate 
North America and breeds especially weU in California, is one of the 
greatest friends of the farmer. 

Bird men say —^principal clause 

that the barn owl is one of the greatest friends of the farmer — 
subordinate noun clause used as the object of the verb say 

which is found all over temperate North America and breeds especially 
well in California —subordinate adjective clause modifying the noun 
owl 

2. An ass may bray a good while before he shakes the stars down. 

An ass may bray a good while —principal clause 

before he shakes the stars down —subordinate adverb clause modifying 
the verb may bray 

Practice 4 

Give the syntax of noun clauses, conjunctions, and relative 
pronouns: 

1. The last three classes are what might be called patricians. ^ 

2. A clever man once said that Denmark, like ancient Gaul, is divided 
into three parts—^butter, bacon, and eggs. 

3. Some found time to speculate concerning what the world would 
look like a hundred years from now. 

4. Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well. 

5. It requires a good, strong man to say, ‘T was mistaken, and am 
sorry.” 

6. A fundamental question of policy is, for instance, whether pre¬ 
paredness in itself is good or evil. . <• i 

7. Some boys have no reverence for what is holy and no pity for what 

is sad. 


442 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


8. Whether this was intentional or involuntary I do not know. 

9. He expressed the opinion that Washington is our greatest American. 

Peactice 5 

Give the syntax of adjective clauses and relative pronouns: 

1. He that is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else. 

2. We prepare ourselves for sudden deeds by the reiterated choice of 
good or evil, which determines character. 

3. Borneo consists mainly of a central plateau from which several 
ranges branch into the lowlands along the coast. 

4. All they needed was a good picket and enough food. 

5. Not far from the place where they lay, there was a castle called 
Doubting Castle, whose owner was Giant Despair. 

Peactice 6 

Give the syntax of adverb clauses and conjunctions: 

1. The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt till they are 
too strong to be broken. 

2. Boldwood had no more skill in finesse than a battering ram. 

3. A man’s worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes. 

4. He listened with greater attention to a speaker than did any other 
man present, and whenever opportunity offered he smiled or told an 
anecdote. 

5. After I had had a few conversations with business men and em¬ 
ployers, I concealed my college diploma as though it were two bombs. 

Peactice 7 

Diagram or analyze these sentences, or give the S3aitax of all 
clauses and the italicized words: 

1. Your slogan should be, ^‘Make every job a masterpiece!” 

2. Whoever has a real purpose is young till he dies. 

3. Those who trust in luck don’t keep their customers. 

4. To the question how shall we improve our Enghsh style, the first 
answer is. Bead the best books and magazines, 

5. Life-insurance experts now shake their heads at excess of fat, and 
consider that it renders the possessor liable to aU sorts of ills. 

6. Before my escape I was told a johe so old that no self-respecting 
person could laugh at it. 

7. “Surely people don’t think that because we have spent four years 
in college we are therefore, in our own estimation, conquerors of the world,” 
1 said. 


PARTS OF THE SENTENCE 


443 


8. If Chicago University is a fair sample of our American colleges, we 
may solace ourselves in our somewhat pessimistic moments by the reflec¬ 
tion that, after all, our colleges show a higher percentage of religious 
interest than the community as a whole. 

9. This was how it was: a spring of clear water rose almost at the top 
of the knoll. 

10. I well remember the pleasure with which, as a young man, I 
heard my venerable professor of rhetoric say that he supposed there was 
no work known to man more difficult than writing. 

Verbals 

Verbals are forms of the verb that do not make statements, 
ask questions, or give commands. The three classes of verbals 
are participles, infinitives, and gerunds. 

A participle is a form of the verb that is used as an adjective. 

Many of the. temples had queer faces carved on the walls or corners. 

A gerund is a form of the verb that is used as a noun. 

He hesitated before answering my question. 

An infinitive is a verb form with to used as a noun, an ad¬ 
jective, or an adverb. To is omitted after hid, dare, need, see, 
make, let, hear, please, feel, help, and sometimes after a few other 
verbs. 

I like to play a fish and work hard for him. 


Model for Written Syntax 


Wishing to see his diving from a high springboard, we 
pool. 

hurried to the 

ELEMENT 

NAME 

CONSTRUCTION OR USE 

RELATION 

wishing 

participle 

modifier 

of we 

to see 

infinitive 

object 

of wishing 

diving 

gerund 

object 

of to see 


Practice 8 

Give the syntax of the participles, gerunds, infinitives, and sub¬ 
ordinate clauses: 

1. The only way to have a friend is to be one. 

2. It is well to think well; it is divine to act well. 



444 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


3. He solved these difficulties by procuring a wheelbarrow from the 
back of the building. 

4. I should like to have him come to the platform and take my seat. 

5. Next morning, impatient to know my luck, I was halfway across 
the lake before the sun came up. 

6. It takes very little water to make a perfect pool for a small fish. 

7. Our greatest glory consists, not in never falling, but in rising every 
time we fall. 

8. To lunch at the palace is to feel oneself in a pleasant and unpre¬ 
tentious family circle. 

9. Panting and fatigued, he threw himself, late in the afternoon, on a 
green knoll covered with mountain herbage, that crowned the brow of a 
precipice. 

10. Children in Norway are taught to love good pictures. 

11. Preparing such a film was wasting the time of talented actors. 

12. He saw at a distance the lordly Hudson, far, far below him, moving 
on its silent but majestic course, with the reflection of a purple cloud, or 
the sad of a lagging bark, here and there sleeping on its glassy bosom, and 
at last losing itself in the blue highlands. 

13. When the college beU no longer sounds to call us to our work, we 
shall find how hard a thing it is to be our own masters. 

14. Few people enjoy passuig an aquarium without stopping to admire 
the goldfish. 

15. Well, on the knoll, and enclosing the spring, they had clapped a 
stout log-house, fit to hold two score of people on a pinch, and loopholed 
for musketry on every side. 

16. Is it too much to ask the business man to forget the old bogy of 
the know-it-all young graduate, and to give the present-day eager, rather 
humble, young person a chance? 

Practice 9 

Analyze or diagram these sentences, or give the S 5 rQtax of the 
clauses and italicized words: 

1. What I started to say was, I wish I knew what the birds call each 
other. 

2. An American woman sitting next to me in a bus as it passed down 
Whitehall in London was much more concerned in airing her complaint 
that she could not get fruit and cold water for breakfast than she was in 
sensing the historic associations of the street she had come to see. 

3. There could hardly be a better example than Mr. D. W. Griffith's 
remarkable moving-picture play called Way Down East of the assertion in 
Mr. H. T. Pulsifer’s recent article in the Outlook called “The World^s 


PARTS OF THE SENTENCE 


445 


Worst Failure’’ that the movies ^‘have ransacked the granaries of drama 
and fiction and borne off more often the chaff than the wheat” 

4. Once in an ancient city, whose name I no longer remember, 

Raised aloft on a column, a brazen statue of Justice 

Stood in the public square, upholding the scales in its left hand, 
And in its right a sword, as an emblem that justice presided 
Over the laws of the land, and the hearts and homes of the people. 

— Longfellow 

5. So live, that when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan, which moves 

To that mysterious realm, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death. 

Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night. 

Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave. 

Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 

About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.— Bryant 

Hundred Per Cent Test—Kinds of Sentences 

Classify the following sentences by writing simple, compound, 
or complex on your paper after the number of each sentence: 

1. Here I observed, by the help of my perspective glass, that they 
were no less than thirty in number, that they had a fire kindled, and that 
they had meat dressed. 

2. Here they used to sit on summer afternoons, talking listlessly 
over village gossip. 

3. The spirit of my fathers grows strong in me, and I will no longer 
endure it. 

4. From behind his stockade Jack watched them through his field 
glass as they landed from the launch and set off for the village. 

5. She stopped a moment beneath the gently dripping trees and took 
off her knitted cap and shook it dry. 

6. Martin Luther writes, 'T was myself flogged fifteen times one after¬ 
noon over the conjugation of a verb.” 

7. A lingering winter and a tardy spring are what we always should 
like in this part of the world. 

8. The fourth largest olive grove in the world is said to be on the 
outskirts of Beirut. 

9. Do you know that the speaker will not disappoint you? 

10. He never bluffs, and he dislikes bluffers. 


CHAPTER XX 


THE CORRECT AND EFFECTIVE SENTENCE 

Half-Sentence and Comma Blunder 
Comma Blunder 

Do not use the comma at the end of a complete sentence. 

(Comma blunder) In one corner was a heap of rags, which evidently 
were used for bedding, a rickety table upon which a few sticks of 
wood were placed occupied the center of the room. 

(Right) In one corner was a heap of rags, which evidently were used 
for bedding. A rickety table upon which a few sticks of wood were 
placed occupied the center of the room. 

To avoid the comma blunder, use a period after every principal 
clause with its modifiers unless it is clearly connected with another 
principal clause to form a compound sentence. When in doubt, 
use the period. 

Notice that the semicolon, not the comma, is used between the 
members of a compound sentence that are not connected by a 
conjunction. 

Our actions are our own; their consequences belong to Heaven. 

Half-Sentence 

In the writing of some high-school seniors participial and infin¬ 
itive phrases, subordinate clauses, and groups of words without a 
verb are found masquerading as sentences. Many authors, it is 
true, occasionally use half-sentences intentionally. Perhaps your 
teacher will not object to your using now and then a half-sentence 
if you place an asterisk before it and write ^Talf-sentence’^ at the 
bottom of the page. But first make sure that you always know 
a half-sentence when you see it. 

(Half-sentence) Emphasis in a sentence is secured by putting an im¬ 
portant word at the end and arranging a series as a climax. By 
using specific words. By striking out unnecessary words. 

446 


CORRECT A^D EFFECTIVE SENTENCE 


447 


(Right) Emphasis in a sentence is secured by putting an emphatic 
word at the end, by arranging a series as a climax, by using specific 
words, and by striking out unnecessary words. 

By using specific words and hy striking out unnecessary words 
are phrases, not sentences. 

(Half-sentence) The deplorable lack of manners that disfigures the 
present age. 

(Right) A deplorable lack of manners disfigures the present age. 

In the expression the deplorable lack of manners that disfigures 
the present age, there is no principal clause. That disfigures the 
present age is a subordinate clause modifying lack. 

Elliptical Sentences 

Use a period after an elliptical sentence, especially the answer 
to a question, with the subject and predicate omitted. 

What do you want? [I want] Nothing. 

When were you in Pittsburgh? [I was in Pittsburgh] In September, 
1929. 

Practice 1 

Correct the following. If necessary, supply a subject and a 
predicate for a principal clause. Give the syntax of each sub¬ 
ordinate clause used. Point out the subject and the predicate of 
each principal clause. 

1. Since the new requirements for high-school graduation are better 
than the old because they broaden the pupil's opportunity and training 
and better fit him for life. Therefore every high school in the city should 
adopt the new requirements for graduation. 

2. Why should we worry about the future, let us do our best today. 

3. His name was Paris, when he was a small boy, Venus had told him 
he would marry the most beautiful woman in the world. 

4. The bill makes eight hours a legal day. Just as the law prescribes 
the standard length of a yard when cloth is sold by the yard. 

5. As I was about to leave the house, the old woman returned, she, 
like the child, was clad in garments of rags. 

6. Referring to your claim of May 29 amounting to $1.60. If you will 
let us have the original bill of lading, we will close out this matter. 


448 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


7. His tie looked as if it had been around his neck several years. Then 
his hat which gave me the impression that it was a family relic. 

8. It was too long to fit into the handlebars, besides how could I hold 
it there? 

9. When memorizing a poem, you should never take it line by line but 
read the entire poem three or four times, then try to say it without the 
book if you don’t know parts of it study the poem awhile longer then try 
again without the book. 

10. Why do you run, this is only a stranger coming in quest of food. 



Times Wide World 

The Army against Notre Dame 
Cagle of the Army making a ten-yard run 


11. The Pied Piper walked in followed by the singing and dancing 
children, when the last were inside the mountain it resumed its natural 
shape. 

12. Before me I saw a large white structure, upon inquiry I found that 
it was the New York Public Library. 

13. Polyphemus had in his cave a large fire where he cooked his food 
or anything which he felt like eating. Such as his sheep or strange men 
if they happened to cross his path. 

14. In this cartoon there were three persons. A girl whose name was 
Mary. A villain whose name was Pedro. And a kind man whose name 
was Algernon. 

15. We are sending you an exact duplicate of the order blank you sent . 
in. So that you can see for yourself whose error caused the delay. 





CORRECT AND EFFECTIVE SENTENCE 449 

Hundred Per Cent Test—Sentence Sense 

EXAMPLES 

1 . Do you know that Proserpine was goddess of the dead she never 
saw the sunshine. 

2. Hoping that you will receive the goods in perfect condition. 

ANSWERS 

1—2 

2—0 

The 1-2 shows that number 1 is two sentences. The 0 indicates 
that the second is not a sentence. 

THE TEST 

Indicate by 0, 1, 2, or 3 the number of complete sentences in 
each of the following: 

1. Two pockets six inches long and five inches wide to be made on 
each side not more than five inches below the waist 

2. Finally the engines reached the fire while preparing the apparatus 
for the fire John Binns one of the firemen saw a boy standing in an upper 
window of the burning building 

3. Do you realize what that means it means actually making a slave 
of a student who should have a free mind 

4. Hoping that you will avail yourself of this unusual opportunity to 
purchase silverware of unique design 

5. In the background a boy han^ng to a narrow ledge so high that 
their longest ladder wouldnT reach him 

6. To make a kite you must have two sticks about one-fourth inch 
thick one twenty the other thirty inches long 

7. The boys during the war fought bravely under the stars and stripes 
shall our country now neglect its wounded heroes 

8. Some paragraphs in this oration are very picturesque for example 
the one in which Webster compares the revolution with a wheel 

9. I learned that it is wise to allow oneself a certain number of minutes 
for each question the time depending upon the number of questions and 
the length of the examination 

10. Rowdyism on the street cars is common among the boys who travel 
to and from school by car they pretend to be young gentlemen but lack 
the essentials of gentiUty 


450 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Case of Pronouns 

1. The subject of a finite verb is in the nominative case. 

Harry Thorpe’s sister is three years younger than he. 

2. The verb to he and other linking verbs take the same case 
after them as before them. 

The story lets you know who his generals were. 

I believed it to be him. 

3. The object of a preposition or a verb is in the objective case. 

They became acquainted with a girl named Rose Red, whom they liked 
very much. 

The apples were given to John and me. 

To determine the correct case of a pronoun in an inverted sen¬ 
tence, arrange the sentence in the grammatical or natural order. 

1. (Who, Whom) do you think wrote the best editorial? 

(Natural order) You do think (who, whom) wrote the best editorial? 

2. (Wdio, Whom) do you think I saw this morning? 

(Natural order) You do think I saw (who, whom) this morning? 

‘‘Who is that for?” “Who does the garden belong to?” and 
similar expressions are common colloquial English. The literary- 
English questions are “For whom is that?” “To whom does the 
garden belong?” 

4. An appositive agrees in case with the word to which it is 
attached. 

He has two to boss him now, John and me. 

5. The subject of an infinitive is in the objective case. 

I believe him to be the man. 

6. A pronoun modifying a gerund is in the possessive case. 

This fountain pen may be carried in the pocket without any danger 
of its leaking. 

Pkactice 2 

Supply the correct pronoun according to literary usage. Give 
the S 3 mtax of each pronoun selected. 


CORRECT AND EFFECTIVE SENTENCE 451 

I. Silas gave most of his money to those.he thought were 

God’s poor, (who, whom) 

2.do you think I received a letter from yesterday? (who, 

whom) 

3. I don’t doubt that some of them thought it was. (I, me) 

4. She then went to the woman .had accused her. (who, 

whom) 

5. If a voter does not know how to read, he doesn’t know_to 

vote for. (who, whom) 

6. Give your name and then ask for.you wish to speak to. 

(whoever, whomever) 

7. Now I have time to devote to those., like yourseK, I hope 

will be my particular customers, (who, whom) 

8. The automobile ran over a little child,.,I think, was killed 

instantly, (who, whom) 

9. In Athens daughters had to marry.the father wished them 

to wed. (whoever, whomever) 

10. Mr. Smith had come to the home to find a girl.he could 

send through college, (who, whom) 

II. We had hopes of.getting well, (him, his) 

12. You have to know.to pass the ball to the moment you 

receive it. (who, whom) 

13. The book is about a peddler.all the Americans thought 

was an English spy. (who, whom) 

14. The man.I supposed was the ringleader turned out to 

be innocent, (who, whom) 

15. The taller man was supposed to be. (he, him) 

16. She knew it to be.by the way I talked. (I, me) 

17 .do you suppose it was? (who, whom) 

18 .— can I trust if not.? (who, whom) (he, him) 

19. I am sorry to hear of.—. doing such a thing, (his, him) 

20. We like to be with those.-.we love and-we know 

love us, let them be.they may. (who, whom) 

Verb and Subject 

A verb agrees with its subject in number and person. 

1. Modifiers of the subject do not affect the number of the 
verb. Do not be deceived by a prepositional phrase after the 
subject. Search out the subject and make the verb agree with it. 

The new rules for promotion are better than the old. 

All the learning of past centuries was forgotten. 

There were two boys carrying silver candles. 


























452 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


2. Singular nouns connected by and require a plural verb. 
“Harry and James are here’^ means that two boys are here. 

Two exceptions are: 

(1) A compound subject that names one person, thing, or idea. 

The pitcher and star of the team was hit on the right arm by a pitched 
ball. 

The liver and bacon has not been fried long enough. 

Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings. 

(2) Some compound subjects following the verb. 

There was a mackerel, a bluefish, and some flounders. 

There was racing and chasing on Cannobie Lee. 

3. A word that is plural in form but names a single object or 
idea takes a singular verb. 

Forty cents is too much for the book. 

Captains of Industry tells how and why some men have achieved success. 
Two-fifths of an apple is less than a half. 

4. A verb having a compound subject Connected by or or nor 
agrees with the nearer subject. 

Either his hat or his coat is lost. 

Because one object is lost, the verb is singular. 

Either his hat or his gloves are lost. 

Because either one object is lost or two objects are lost, the 
verb agrees with the nearer subject word gloves. 

(Right) Either John or I am captain of the dramatization squad. 
(Better) Either John is captain of the dramatization squad, or I am. 

5. Y ou always takes a plural verb. 

You weren’t at the game. 

6. Each, every, either, neither, any one, anybody, every one, every- 
body, some one, somebody, no one, nobody, one, many a, and a 
person are singular. 

Every one has stood by his word. 

Every leaf and twig is moving. 

Neither of the sentences is forceful. 


CORRECT AND EFFECTIVE SENTENCE 


453 


7. A collective noun takes a singular verb when the group is 
thought of and a plural verb when the individuals are thought of. 
The crowd was very great. 

The crowd were throwing stones. 

Pkactice 3 

Choose the correct verb. Give the reason. 


1. Mathematics.a difficult subject, (is, are) 

2. There.some unfortunate tendencies in our government. 

(is, are) 


3. English and history.the student a knowledge of his own 

language and history, (gives, give) 

4. The Harvard football team.beaten by Yale by the score 

of six to three, (was, were) 

5. One of the tonsils.. diseased, (is, are) 

6. There.not so many large and beautiful houses as there 

.today, (was, were) (is, are) 

7. The expression free textbooks .reference to books lent to 

the pupil by the Board of Education, (has, have) 

8. Many a traveler in Switzerland . Rigi Kulm. (climbs, 

climb) 

9. Neither of us.well, (is, are) 

10. An alligator.make the best pet. (doesn’t, don’t) 

11. Every bud and blossom.opening wide, (is, are) 

12. There.grass and flowers between the fence and the build¬ 

ing. (is, are) 

13. The congregation.free to go their way. (was, were) 

14. Not one of the seven.injured, (was, were) 

15. Is it Juhet or Mary who.first in the class? (stands, stand) 

16. It is one of those that.lost, (was, were) 

17. James and I.about to go home, (was, were) 

18. Every one of the boys.to blame, (was, were) 

19. He is one of those who never. with the rights of others. 

(interferes, interfere) 

20. The committee _ all phases of the question, (discusses, 

discuss) 

Pronoun and Antecedent 

A pronoun agrees with its antecedent in number, person, and 
gender. Find the antecedent of the pronoun. Then if you don’t 
know the number of the antecedent, consult the rules for subject 
and verb. 
























454 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


1. His may be used to refer to one. Some authorities, however, 
consider one’s better usage. 

2. His is generally preferable to the clumsy his or her. 

Every pupil in class had used the method of outlining in studying his 
history lesson. 

3. While one frequently hears “Everybody bought their own 
ticket^^ and “Everybody went to the circus all dressed up in their 
Sunday clothes,’^ the expressions are colloquial. Most careful 
speakers avoid this usage. 

Practice 4 

Select the correct words. Give the reason for each selection. 

1. When Faith thought there was a person in the village who needed 

her, she was the first to help. (him, them) 

2. A Jonah is one who, people say, brings hard luck with .. 

(him, them) 

3. If a person wishes to win a good position,_must have at 

least a high-school education, (he, they) 

4. Every one did.best, (his, their) 

5. Spanish is not a difficult subject if one does_homework 

every day. (his, their, one’s) 

6. When one is young, .easily discouraged, (he is, one is, 

they are) 

7. Every one should know what is best for_ (himself, them¬ 

selves) 

8. If any one has not finished, let.hold up_ (him, 

them) (his hand, their hands) 

9. When you sell a person a dress, don’t ask whether.to have 

it sent, (she wishes, they wish) 

10. Before any one is employed by the National Cloak & Suit Com¬ 
pany, .must pass an examination, (he, he or she, they) 

11. Every one knows what.own problems are. (his, his or 


her, their) 

12. Everybody at the party enjoyed. (himself, himself or 

herself, themselves) 


.diligence, (its, their) 

14. Every act and every thought ..effect on our character. 

(has its, have their) 

15. Many a man squanders money when _ young, (he is 

they are) 


















455' 


CORRECT AND EFFECTIVE SENTENCE 

Mastery Test—^Agreement 

In each of the following which word or expression is correct? 
On your paper write each answer after the number of the sentence. 

1. A box of figs.sent us for Christmas, (was, were) 

2. The number of high-school graduates.increasing, (is, are) 

3. Up.four men with scaling ladders, (goes, go) 

4. Oatmeal and milk. a good breakfast dish, (is, are) 

5. The Pickwick Payers .written by Dickens, (was, were) 

6. Five dollars.too much for the hat. (is, are) 

7. Three-fourths of his time.wasted, (is, are) 

8. Not one man in ten.how to use his money to the best ad¬ 

vantage. (knows, know) 

9. The number of burglaries far.the number of fires, (ex¬ 

ceeds, exceed) 

10. Washington’s unselfishness, modesty, and loyalty . well 

shown in his acceptance of the presidency, (is, are) 

11. On each side of the butler.two boys carrying tall lighted 

candles, (is, are) 

12. The queen with all her attendants.waiting, (is, are) 

13. They have stiff bristles, which . up dirt and thread. 

(picks, pick) 

14. Then a fairy gives each one a little green hat with which. 

can look into the future or the past and see the souls of trees and other 
things, (he, they) 

15. Every one found it necessary to carry a sword for.own 

protection, (his, their) 

16. Biology is helpful to a person wishing to take up farming, as it 

gives.—. a knowledge of plant laws, (him, them) 

17. Neither Charles nor his brother ate.breakfast this morn¬ 

ing. (his, their) 

18. Each of the men after . appointment must report as 

speedily as possible to the President, (his, their) 

19. The company has hired an attorney to look after.interests 

in the settlement, (its, their) 

20. The jury are considering the case in-room, (its, their) 

Compound Personal Pronoun and Relative Pronoun 

1. The compound personal pronoun is used to refer back to 
the subject or to emphasize the noun or pronoun to which it is 
attached. 

He struck himself. He himself did it. 





















456 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Most careful speakers and writers do not use the compound 
personal pronouns as simple personal pronouns, especially in the 
nominative case. 

(Faulty) Jenkins and myself are planning to work on a farm in 
Westchester County this summer. 

(Right) Jenkins and I are planning to work on a farm in Westchester 
County this summer. 

2. Who refers chiefly to persons; which, to animals or things; 
that, to persons, animals, or things. That is seldom used in a 
clause the omission of which would not change or destroy the 
meaning of the principal clause. 

They reached the whitewashed cottage that stood on stilts. 

The restrictive clause that stood on stilts answers the ques¬ 
tion, ^^Which one?’^ and changes the meaning of the principal 
clause. 

What never has an antecedent. As is used as a relative pronoun 
after such and same. 


Practice 5 

Select the correct words. Give the reason for each selection. 

1. Her friend was slightly better off than. (she, herself) 

2. Everything.is beautiful deserves the protection of all who 

love beauty, (that, which, who) 

3. The men.were engaged on the work were good artisans. 

(who, which, that) 

4. Carpenters use the spirit level to find out whether corner posts and 

such other pieces of material.have a vertical position are ex¬ 

actly upright, (as, that) 

5. The wise man is like a bird . stays by . (who 

which, what) (himself, itseK) 

6. In college many people find the friends . mean most to 

them in later life, (that, which, who) 

7. When I become frightened, I forget all. I have studied. 

(that, which, what) 

8. Arthur and . are planning to enter Purdue. (I, myself) 

9. No fault could be found with his English, . was literally 

perfect, (that, which) 












CORRECT AND EFFECTIVE SENTENCE 457 

10. The members of the committee are Harold, Theodore, and_ 

(I, myself) 

Mastery Test—Pronoun 

In each of the following which pronoun is correct or preferred? 
On your paper write each answer after the number of the sentence. 

1. Our success depends on every . doing his duty, (one, 

one’s) 

2. The Phseacians gave many gifts to strangers,.they thought 

were sent by the gods, (who, whom) 

3. He was a man.the broker knew was looking for an in¬ 

vestment. (who, whom) 


4 .do you think me to be? (who, whom) 

5 .do you think I am? (who, whom) 


6. The General Organization will give a gold medal to 
writes the best school song, (whoever, whomever) 

7. What is the use of.studying algebra? (me, my) 

8. The old Dutch settlers.I am going to describe wore wooden 

shoes, (who, whom) 

9. The scout master selected for the climb those.he thought 

strongest, (who, whom) 

10. Going through the woods. King Richard was attacked by some 

men.he thought were bandits, (who, whom) 

11. I am surprised at.growing so thin, (him, his) 

12. The man.I believed my friend proved to be my enemy. 

(who, whom) 

13. A person . I think was Mr. Smith called today, (who, 

whom) 

14. Give it to . comes to the door, (whoever, whomever) 

15. When he shoots a partridge, a pigeon, or a pheasant, he gives 
.away, (it, them) 

16. Many a man returns home with less than . went away 

with, (he, they) 

17. My opponents and.agree that the new requirements for 

graduation permit greater freedom in the election of subjects. (I, myself) 

18. In the corner of the cave was a pen for the sheep,.were 

brought in for the night, (that, which, who) 

19. We shall try to avoid losing such old customers as __ 

(you, yourself) 

20. In the sketch are three men, two of_are running rapidly. 

(which, whom) 






















458 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Principal Parts of Verbs 

Practice 6 

Insert in each sentence the verb form named. Supply the 
active voice of a transitive verb unless the passive is asked for. 
When in doubt, consult a dictionary and the conjugation in the 
appendix of this book. 

1. The boy (past perfect of jail) down the stairs and (past perfect of 
break) his tennis racket. 

2. In a short time the ice cream (past passive of freeze). 

3. The assassins of Marshal Wilson (past passive of hang). 

4. When he (past of become) old, his face looked like the Great Stone 
Face. 

5. He (past perfect of ride) on a freight car the entire distance from 
New York. 

6. He (present perfect of swim) around the island. 

7. The paper (past passive of tear) into tiny pieces. 

8. The car (past perfect passive of take) from the garage. 

9. The squirrel (past perfect of bite) his hand. 

10. When he (past perfect of drink) the glass of ginger ale, he (past of 
dive) into the water. 

11. He (past of ring) the doorbell a dozen times and then (past of 
begin) to be discouraged. 

12. He (past of sing) a song which (past perfect passive of write) for 
him by Franz Schubert. 

13. With much difficulty he (past perfect of get) ten tickets for the 
opera. 

14. Lott (present perfect of show) skill and pluck and (present perfect 
of beat) three state champions. 

15. When Harry entered. Jack (past of spring) to his feet but soon (past 
of sink) back into his seat. 

Sit, Set, Lie, Lay, Rise, Raise 

Set, lay, and raise are transitive verbs. In the active voice these 
words require objects. Sit, lie, and rise never take objects. 

One day he laid a concrete sidewalk, but the next day he lay in bed. 

The hen sat all day where we set her. 

They raised the flag as the sun rose. 


CORRECT AND EFFECTIVE SENTENCE 


459 


Practice 7 

Give the principal parts of sit^ setj lie^ lay^ rise, and raise. 
Include the present participle. 

Select the correct word to complete each sentence. Give the 
reason for each choice. 

1. Indiana.between Ohio and Illinois, (lays, lies) 

2. Mother had just.down when the doorbell rang, (laid, lain) 


3. The people saw Eppie’s mother .in the snow, (laying, 

lying) 

4. During last night’s concert Irving . still listening to the 

music, (lay, laid) 


5 .on the floor are bits of paper, (laying, lying) 

6 . the desk in the corner, (set, sit) 

7. Let the little girl., in front, (set, sit) 

8. After climbing for an hour I.down to rest, (sat, set) 

9. Having.to the surface, he seized the child and. 

her upon a piece of wreckage, (raised, risen) (raised, rose) 

10. Do you know why this bread doesn’t.? (raise, rise) 

Subjunctive Mood 

The subjunctive mood is used for a wish or a prayer, a con¬ 
dition contrary to fact, and volition (commanding, demanding, 
willing). 

If I were you, I should learn how to study. (Condition contrary to 
fact) 

I wish I were in Florida. (Wish) 

God bless you. (Wish or prayer) 

I insist that he go at once. (Demanding) 

Everybody stand up. (Commanding) 

Tense 

1. Actions that take place at the same time must be expressed 
by the same tense. Do not carelessly shift from the past to the 
present or the present to the past. 

(Wrong) They broke up the meetings that they don’t like. 

(Right) They broke up the meetings that they didn’t like. 

2. The past tense represents action completed in past time. 













460 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


The present perfect tense is used if the action is completed at 
the present time or extends, at least in its consequences, to the 
present. 

I lost my book. (This statement has to do only with the past act of 
losing the book, which may since have been found.) 

I have lost my book. (Here the consequences extend to the present. 
The book has not been recovered.) 

The Lincoln ran for six years. (It doesn’t run now.) 

The Lincoln has run for ten years. (It still runs.) 

He passed chemistry last term. (He may be failing this term.) 

He has always earned an honor mark in English. (His ability and 
energy extend to the present.) 

3. The past perfect tense represents action completed before 
some past time. 

When I reached home, I discovered that I had lost my book. 

The discovery took place in past time, and the losing was com¬ 
pleted before the discovery. 

As I had seen only one before, I examined it with great care. 

Had seen is correct, because the seeing took place before the 
past act of examining. 

4. The past infinitive and past participle are used if the action 
of the infinitive or participle occurs before that of the main verb; 
otherwise the present infinitive and present participle are used. 

During my visit to Mineola I hoped to ride in a Fokker. 

To have ridden would be incorrect, because the riding did not 
occur before the hoping. 

I intended to buy a pair of gloves. 

Buying does not precede intending. 

5. The present tense is used to express what is customary or 
always true. 

The science teacher told the class that water expands when it freezes. 

6. The present tense may be used for the past in vivid narration. 

Csesar crosses the Rubicon, enters Rome. 



CORRECT AND EFFECTIVE SENTENCE 


461 


7. Mighty could y would y and shouldy not mayy can, willy and 
shally are used after a past tense. 

Ernest said that he might he absent from the meeting. 


Practice 8 


Insert the correct word. Give the reason. 


1. Kindly let me know whether such a bag has been found, so that I 
.call for it. (may, might) 

2. When I reached home, I discovered that I.my suitcase. 

(forgot, had forgotten) 

3. Tom said that he .a good way to get rid of warts, (knows, 

knew) 


4. Although these cases were shipped a month ago, the purchaser 
.the goods yet. (did not receive, has not received) 

5. Washington closed his address with the hope that what. 

been done during his administration.benefit the people, (has, 

had) (may, might) 

6. He recalled the names of the dead heroes and told the audience 

what these men . to free this country, (did, have done, had 

done) 


i 

i 




7. Its grimy hue suggests that many a day has elapsed since its original 

coat of dark red paint.applied, (has been, had been, was) 

8. If Squire Cass’s sons.him, they would have considered his 

feelings, (loved, had loved) 

9. If Godfrey.so weak in nature, he would have resisted all 

temptations, (were not, had not been) 

10. Circe told him that when he arrived at the land of the Sirens he 


should fill the ears of his men with wax so that they.not hear 

the song of the Sirens, (may, might) 

11. Modern history is the record of events that ...recently. 

(happened, have happened) 


12.you will find seventy-five dollars, (inclose, inclosed) 

13. As we were walking across the desert, we realized how necessary 

water.to people, (is, was) 

14. The teacher told us that air.made of two gases, (is, was) 

15. He asked how many miles it.from New York to Boston. 

(is, was) 

16. I wished.earlier, (to go, to have gone) 

17. Since Shakespeare’s time the theaters-- (changed, have 

changed) 

18. The colonists were the descendants of the English and-- 

the English conception of liberty, (have, had) 






















462 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


19. Sir Walter Scott wished.the total indebtedness of his 

publishers, (to repay, to have repaid) 

20. I intended.last week, (to go, to have gone) 

Shall, Will, Should, Would 

1. To express simple future time, use shall in the first person 
and will in the second and third. 

I shall endeavor to prove the law unfair and oppressive. 

I shall he glad to see you. 

“I will be glad to see you’^ could mean only “I am determined to be 
glad to see you.’^ This remark is nonsense, because one doesnT determine 
to be glad. 

2. To express command, consent, wish, willingness, promise, or 
determination, use will in the first person and shall in the second 
and third. 

We will let you enter the room. (Consent) 

You shall receive the shoes next Tuesday. (Promise) 

3. In first person questions use shall; in second and third per¬ 
son questions use the auxiliary expected in the answer. 

How shall I repay you? 

When will the train arrive? 

The answer is, “The train will arrive at 10:39.” Use will in the question 
because will is expected in the answer. 

4. In an indirect quotation use the auxiliary that would be 
used if the quotation were direct. 

(Direct) He says, “I shall he twenty tomorrow.” 

(Indirect) He says that he shall he twenty tomorrow. 

5. In other subordinate clauses, shall and should are commonly 
used in all persons for the simple future; will and would, for 
wishing, consenting, and willing. 

If war should he abolished, misery would be lessened. 

6. Should and would follow the general uses of shall and will. 

I should like to see him loop the loop. 




463 


CORRECT AND EFFECTIVE SENTENCE 

Exceptions. Would is used for— 

(1) A wish. 

Would that I had never seen the man! 

(2) Habitual action. 

He would walk up and down his room all day. 

Should is used for— 

(1) Duty. 

He should stand by his friends. 

(2) A modest expression of opinion. 

I should think so. 

Certain of these rules are sometimes disregarded by many intel¬ 
ligent and educated people. Therefore, ‘T will probably enter 
the Columbia University in September,” although not the best 
usage, is accepted as colloquial English. The rule, however, indi¬ 
cates the practice of most writers. 

Pkactice 9 

Supply the preferred form— shall, will, should, would. Justify 
each choice. 

1. The two books I.compare are A Friend of Ccesar and The 

Fortunate Youth. 

2. I guarantee that every penny.be paid. 

3. Are you afraid that you.miss the train? 

4. The clerk promised that the parcel.be here by six o’clock. 

5. The man informed us that he.be ready at one o’clock and 


that his friend.also be ready. 

6. I.take cold if the window is not closed. 


7. He was afraid that he.be late. 

8. Which road to Lake Placid.I find the better? 

9. My colleagues and I.point out the defects in the present 

system and suggest a remedy. 

10. He promises that he.see you. 

11.you be glad when this examination is ended? 

12. If no one assists me, I.starve; but sell my books, that 

I .never do! 

13. He promised that he 


send us a picture of San Marco. 

















464 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


14. I.like to arrange a debate between our schools. 

15. I.be astonished if he went to church. 

16. I fear that I.not be able to pass my examination. 

17. If he.not succeed, then I.be the loser, (should, 

would) 

18. I.be very much obliged to him if he.arrange 

the matter, (shall, will) 

19. If you.call for me, I .be glad to go with you. 

(shall, will) 

20. I.be grateful to you if you__find this information 

for us. (should, would) 

Masteky Test—Verbs 

Select the correct or preferred verb to complete each sentence. 
On your paper write each answer after the number of the sentence. 

1. We . be much pleased to have you examine the racket. 

(shall, will) 

2. I think it.not be a bit of use. (shall, will) 

3.I take you back? (shall, will) 

4. He promised that he.deliver the car on or before Septem¬ 

ber 1. (should, would) 

5. I fear that I.not be able to come, (shall, will) 

6. When I reached home, I found I.my books on the auto 

seat, (left, had left) 

7. No sooner had we reached the house and.to feel at home 

than the order came to move on. (began, begun) 

8. He gave three proofs that the earth.round, (is, was) 

9. If he.a gentleman, he would give his seat to the woman 

with the baby, (was, were) 

10. If he.younger, he would study medicine, (was, were) 

11. I intended.to the game last Saturday, (to go, to have 

gone) 

12. The ship ran down a small fishing smack that was . at 

anchor, (laying, lying) 

13. After dinner I . down and fell asleep, (laid, lay) 

14. Last evening I.the trap, (sat, set) 

15. For a week Theodore’s algebra has.on the table in Room 

201. (laid, lain) 

16. A slave trader.to Mr. Leslie’s house one day. (came, come) 

17. He had.an hour early, (awakened, awoke) 

18. Franklin’s method of carrying out his projects_the same 

in every case, (was, were) 































CORRECT AND EFFECTIVE SENTENCE 465 

19. The door of one cell is open and within . two figures. 

(stands, stand) 


20. Pure air, as well as sunlight, .needed for the growth of 

plants, (is, are) 

Adjectives and Adverbs 

1. Use the comparative when comparing two. 

He is the faster runner but the slower student of the two. 

2. When the comparative is used for more than two, exclude 
from the group the object compared. 

(Wrong) New York is wealthier than any city in the United States. 

(Right) New York is wealthier than any other city in the United 
States. 

The incorrect sentence states that New York is wealthier than 
itself, because New York is one of the cities in the group any city 
in the United States. 

3. With the superlative include in the group the object com¬ 
pared. 

New York is the wealthiest city in the United States. 

4. Avoid double comparison {more jitter, most unkindest). These 
forms were common in early English but are now errors. 

(Wrong) He is more wiser than he looks. 

(Right) He is wiser than he looks. 

5. This and that are singular; these and those, plural. 

(Wrong) No one would order those kind of oranges. 

(Right) No one would order that kind of oranges. 

6. Repeat the article before a second noun in a series for con¬ 
trast, clearness, or emphasis. 

Happiness belongs to neither the poor nor the rich. 

The chairman and the speaker of the evening have not yet arrived. 

7. When two or more adjectives modify a noun, repeat the 
article only if different objects are meant. 

The green and white house has been torn down. 

The green and the white house needed extensive repairs. 






466 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


The green and white house means one house. The green and the 
white house means two houses. 

8. Omit the article after sort and kind. 

(Wrong) The kangaroo is a strange sort of an animal. 

(Right) The kangaroo is a strange sort of animal. 

9. Use a before a consonant sound and an before a vowel sound. 
Don’t make the mistake of thinking of letters instead of sounds. 
A hour is wrong, because the h is silent. 

10. Avoid the double negative. The negative is not used with 
hardlyj scarcely, only, and hut when it means only. 

(Wrong) I don’t know nothing about the transmigration of souls. 
(Right) I don’t know anything about the transmigration of souls. 

Practice 10 

Select the correct word in each sentence and give a reason for 
the choice: 


1. Which of the books on the travel list is the.? (better, 

best) 

2. The World has one hundred thousand larger circulation than 
.paper, (any, any other) 

3. Of the poets Longfellow and Whitman, the.is the. 

known, (former, first) (better, best) 

4. Of all Thackeray’s novels, Henry Esmond is the.interest¬ 

ing. (more, most) 


5. It was more like real life than.story I have ever read. 

(any, any other) 

6. My father drinks more water than.man I know, and he 

isn’t fat. (any, any other) 

7. The birds of Brazil are more beautiful than . in South 

America, (any, any other) 


8. He.hardly see the speaker, (can’t, can) 

9. There.but one church in the village, (is, isn’t) 

10. I ..had nothing to do with the matter, (have, haven’t) 

11.kind of game is very exciting, (that, those) 


12. He was transformed into a repulsive sort of. (an animal, 

animal) 

13. Go south on Park Avenue for about a half__ (block, a 

block) 
















CORRECT AND EFFECTIVE SENTENCE 467 


14. Beyond the ridge were the village church and. (school- 

house, the schoolhouse) 

15. She hesitated between the black and . dress, (white 

the white) ' 


Wrong Part of Speech 

1. Do not interchange conjunctions and prepositions. As, than, 
and unless are commonly conjunctions.. Like, from, and without 
are never conjunctions. 

The English Christmas is different from the American. 

She speaks as I do. 

2. Do not use an adjective to modify a verb, an adjective, or 
an adverb. 

(Slang) I sure was glad to see my mother. 

(Right) I surely was glad to see my mother. 

Slow, loud, quick, fast, cheap, right, wrong, clear, ill, hard, high, 
long, and deep are used as adjectives or as adverbs. 

(Right) Drive slow. Come quick. Speak louder. 

3. After look, feel, taste, smell, and sound, use a predicate adjective 
to describe the subject. 

(Wrong) The orange tastes sweetly. 

(Right) The orange tastes sweet. 

4. Do not carelessly use to and their as adverbs. 

(Right) There are too many errors in your work. 

Practice 11 

Select the correct word to complete each sentence. Give the 
reason. 

1. He doesn’t work . I do. (as, like) 

2. My book is different. Miss Hallam’s. (from, than) 

3. How could you get the water back.you had a series of 

ditches? (without, unless) 

4. It was just. Mrs. Jenkins had said, (as, like) 

5. My English mark was different.I expected, (than, from 

what) 

6. The Shakespearean theaters did not have roofs_theaters 

have nowadays, (as, like) 










468 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


7. The boy crawled like a snail_to school, (unwilling, un¬ 

willingly) 

8. Her teacher was.surprised to find Helen still in the tree. 

(real, really) 

9. Other fountain pens are filled. (different, differently) 

10. She looks.in a white dress, (beautiful, beautifully) 

11. The silk feels. (smooth, smoothly) 

12. Sir Walter Scott felt* very.about the failure of his pub¬ 

lishing house, (bad, badly) 

13. You use.many superlatives, (to, too) 

14. Rip Van Winkle was.lazy to earn a living, (to, too) 

15.-.were hardly any signs of life, (there, their) 

Syntactical Redundance 

1. A pronoun and its antecedent are not used as subject of the 
same verb. 

(Wrong) A druggist who compounds prescriptions he must know 
Latin. 

(Right) A druggist who compounds prescriptions must know Latin. 

2. Cross out unnecessary prepositions. 

(Wrong) The only possible days are on Friday and Wednesday. 

(Right) The only possible days are Friday and Wednesday. 

(Wrong) Get off of my hat. 

(Right) Get off my hat. 

Pkactice 12 

Correct and give reasons: 

1. This is a proposition which when you look into it, it will be hard 
for you to resist. 

2. These people although they had many negro slaves nevertheless 
they had to work in the fields. 

3. The reason for my failure was because of absence. 

4. He told about how the submarine was caught in the net. 

5. The Greeks had many gods and goddesses to whom they prayed 
to when they wanted anything. 

6. The door was opened by a lengthy, gawky boy of about fifteen 
years old. 

7. I remember of hearing him make the statement. 

8. I have learned that when a person is describing a building that he 
should usually suggest the point of view. 









CORRECT AND EFFECTIVE SENTENCE 469 

9. From whence has the stranger come? 

10. Brom Bones told of the Headless Horseman, whom he had seen and 
challenged him to a race. 

Omission 

Subjects, verbs, objects, conjunctions, and prepositions gram¬ 
matically necessary are sometimes omitted. 

(Ambiguous) I know you better than Joe or Jack. 

(Right) I know you better than Joe or Jack knows you. 

(Right) I know you better than I know Joe or Jack. 

(Wrong) Josephine is as tall or taller than her sister. 

(Right) Josephine is as tall as her sister, or taller. 

1. Do not omit a repeated verb if it differs in form from the 
verb expressed. 

(Colloquial) The Yale team hoped to defeat Harvard as decisively as 
they had already Princeton. 

Had defeat is not grammatical. 

(Right) The Yale team hoped to defeat Harvard as decisively as 
they had already beaten Princeton. 

2. Insert the word needed to complete a comparison. 

(Wrong) The salary of a traveling companion is in many cases larger 
than a private secretary or a stenographer. 

(Right) The salary of a traveling companion is in many cases larger 
than that of a private secretary or a stenographer. 

3. Do not omit a needed preposition. • 

(Wrong) Booker Washington graduated Hampton Institute. 

(Right) Booker Washington graduated from Hampton Institute. 

Graduate in this sense does not take an object. Both graduated 
from and was graduated from are correct. 

Practice 13 

Correct and give reasons: 

1. This is the best work that you ever have or ever will see. 

2. Webster told his hearers they were on the same ground their fathers 
stood fifty years before. 

3. Our wedding cakes are got up in a style equal to any baker in the 
city. 


470 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


4. Received your letter in this morning’s mail and hasten to assure 
you that I shall be on hand on May 18. 

5. The first place which Harry stopped on his trip was Ithaca. 

6. The critics said that it was as good, if not better, than the 
Spectator. 

7. I am hoping in your next letter to hear a great improvement in 
your work. 

Mastery Test—Grammar Except Pronoun and Verb 

In each of the following which word or expression is correct? On 
your paper write each answer after the number of the sentence. 

1. Paris is larger than.city in France, (any, any other) 


2. I.hardly get my breath, (could, couldn’t) 

3. I like.kind of games, (that, those) 


4. The secretary and . gave their reports, (treasurer, the 

treasurer) 

6. The theaters of Shakespeare’s time were much different_ 

our modern theaters, (from, than) 

6. Joseph doesn’t study.I do. (as, like) 

7. Diamonds are more desired than_precious stone, (any, 

any other) 

8. Mrs. Williams has more flowers than __ woman on her 

street, (any, any other) 

9. A sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows.with 

constant use. (keener, more keener) 

10.were forty boys at the game, (their, there) 

11. The bell pounds. (harsh, harshly) 

12. His thoughts came. (irregular, irregularly) 

13. They wouldn’t.my decision, (accept, accept of) 

14. Although Johnson was a genius, he did not rise in the world as 

rapidly as a man of his ability should. (have, have risen) 

15. A fountain pen is a great convenience to the business man and 

., as it saves money for the one and time for the other, (scholar, 

the scholar) 

16. We were all to meet at the village church in a half __ 

(hour, an hour) 

17. I shall not go-Marie goes, (unless, without) 

18. One day the boat upon which he.landed at an island. 

(was, was on) 

19. Your book seems to be different.mine, (from, than) 

20. He prefers.kind of apples, (that, those) 






















CHAPTER XXI 


BETTER SENTENCES 

Varied sentences are pleasing; sentences of the same kind are 
tiresome. Most pupils overuse the simple sentence beginning 
with the subject, and the compound sentence. This chapter 
shows six ways of applying grammar to the improvement of 
sentences and two other ways to make sentences more effective. 

(1) Something Other than Adjectives before the Subject 

What grammatical element or elements are placed before the 
subject in each of these sentences? 

1. Half-heartedly they started down the hill. 

2. At the summit they stopped to enjoy the view. 

3. As the chiming of hells ceased, the master entered, and with a sharp rap 
for order began a lecture in Latin on the natural sciences. 

4. Driving home through the summer evening, Old Riley meditated on the 
weather and the landscape. 

5. To correct a narrow chest and shying shoulders the back stroke is un- 
equaled. 

6. A hayyy hoy was Joseph. 

7. How it came there I did not know. 

The elements before the subjects in these sentences are: (1) ad¬ 
verb, (2) prepositional phrase, (3) adverb clause, (4) participial 
phrase, (5) infinitive phrase, (6) predicate nominative and verb, 
(7) noun clause used as the object of the verb. 

''Childish,'' "babyish," "immature," and "primer" are names 
sometimes given to English in which sentences always begin with 
the subject and the verb, especially if the sentences are com¬ 
pounded with and and so. Subject, verb, subject, verb, subject, 
verb, andj so, and, so — this sameness becomes very tiresome. 
To make your writing sound hke that of an educated man or 
woman, get into the habit of sometimes putting before the subject 

471 


472 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


an adverb, an adverb clause, an infinitive, a prepositional phrase, 
a predicate nominative, an object, a participle, or a verb. 

Practice 1 

Revise each of these sentences by placing something besides 
adjectives before the subject. Then tell what grammatical ele¬ 
ment or elements you placed before the subject. 

1. I began to think that you had disappeared from the face of the earth, 
not having heard from you for so long. 

2. The duck waddled behind him. 

3. Chicago today celebrated the 196th anniversary of the birth of George 
Washington, first president, with inactivity broken only by special services 
in parts of the city. 

4. A five-and-ten-cent store string of beads and a $30,000 pearl necklace 
are all the same to William Craig, twenty-seven years old, a collector of 
857 St. John’s Place, Brooklyn. 

5. I had worked in a small pet shop in the busy city sixty miles away 
during the summer vacations of my last three high-school years. 

6. The talking film does not differ from the usual motion-picture positive 
to the casual observer. 

7. A hippo rose for air with a snorting roar. 

8. The arteries carry bright scarlet blood, which has taken up air in its 
passage through the lungs, to every part of the body. 

9. The Lone Flyer, like Robinson Crusoe, survived because he left 
nothing to chance. 

10. The slow apple wagons down in the valley move through the wood- 
smoke haze. 

11. All venturers feel, though in var 5 dng degrees, the joy of travel in 
strange lands. 

12. Frosina, skipping along beside me, waited patiently for her answer. 

13. The birches were the most striking of all the storm-ridden trees. 

14. A low round table of polished wood was in the middle of the room. 

15. My grandmother had even then, in her seventy-fifth year, the grace 
and bearing of a queen. 

16. The river is fully a half mile wide at the point where we stood. 

17. They started off for the next town. 

18. The cat ran up the tree with Towser after her. 

19. We went forward slowly. 

20. American producers have reaped a golden harvest in the short life of 
the motion-picture industry. 

21. The tiny monoplane came out of the mist, from the far end of the 
runway, like a ghostly, dust-tossing bird. 

22. Homespun mattresses stuffed with cat-tails were on the floor of the 
bedroom. 

23. A gray windmill, washed by billows of golden grain, stood on the hill. 


BETTER SENTENCES 473 

24. The road lay behind the windmill, and a row of low cottages ran along 
it hke beads on a string. 

25. They trudged slowly, almost painfully, along the trail up over the 
ridge separating their own httle valley from that of their nearest neighbor. 

Example: 

TEACHING AN ELEPHANT TO STAND ON HIS HEAD 

* In teaching elephants to do various tricks and acts, the first and prin¬ 
cipal thing to accomplish is to make them understand clearly what you 
want and to associate that particular action with a certain command or 
cue. * Once the big fellows grasp your meaning it is seldom that they 
will deliberately refuse to do what you wish them to. * In fact, the more 
intelligent ones seem to take a certain pride in doing their stunts. It 
wiU be readily seen, however, that it is a problem not entirely free from 
perplexities to discover ways to make an elephant understand what you 
are talking about when, for instance, you ask him to stand on his head. 

My method of doing this was to stand him facing a high, strong brick 
wall with his front feet securely fastened to a couple of stakes driven in 
the ground. A heavy rope sling was put round his hindquarters and 
from this a rope was run up to and over a pulley high above him on the 
wall, then down through a snatch block near the ground and the end 
fastened to a harness on another elephant. * When all was ready I 
would take my place by him, strike him in the flank and say, “Stand 
on your head.” * At the same time an assistant would start up the other 
elephant and draw the pupil’s hindquarters up until he stood squarely 
on his head. The wall kept him from going over forward. * After a 
moment or two I would tell him to get down. The assistant would slack 
off on the rope and let him settle back onto his feet. * Then I would give 
him a carrot, or something of the kind. I did this two or three times 
every morning and afternoon and it was not long before it was possible 
to do away with the rigging. * At the word of command he would put 
his head down and throw his hindquarters into the air. * Of course, the 
longer he practiced the more easily and surely he did it. 

— George Conklin, The Ways of the Circus 

Practice 2 

Write entertainingly on one of the following topics. In five 
or more sentences put something beside adjectives before the sub¬ 
ject. Place a star (*) at the beginning of each of these sentences. 

1. An animal story — elephant, cat, dog, squirrel, rabbit. 2. An experience 
in the zoo. 3. How a brave dog helped to win a battle. 4. Kindness to 
animals. 5. Pets that I have had. 6. Boy saved by his dog. 7. How I 


474 . 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


taught my dog a trick. 8. The most intelligent animal I know. 9. Should 
dogs on the street be muzzled? 10. How a cat cares for her kittens. 11. How 
to care for a puppy, a rabbit, a horse, a cow, or another animal. 12. A hunting 
experience. 13. How to bathe a dog. 14. How to break a colt. 15. Traits, 
habits, and habitat of the animal that I have observed most carefully. 
16. A trick I played on the dog. 17. An animal I saw in the movies. 
18. Gray wolves in the snow. 



Courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History 

Gray Wolves 


(2) Complex Sentence 

(Childish) My father knows Boston well, so he took me over to State 
Street and showed me the scene of the Boston Massacre. 

(Better) My father, who knows Boston well, took me over to State 
Street and showed me the scene of the Boston Massacre. 

And and so are useful words, but they are sadly overworked. 
Hence boys and girls improve their Enghsh when they get rid of 
and and so joining clauses by substituting adverb or noun clauses 
for some of the principal clauses. The average pupil needs to 
form the habit of writing more noun clauses and complex-complex 
sentences. 











BETTER SENTENCES 


475 


Practice 3 

Change a compound sentence or two or three sentences into a 
complex sentence by subordinating one of the ideas. Place 
the adverb clauses before the principal clauses they modify. 
Select a conjunction that shows exactly how the clauses are re¬ 
lated in thought. 

1. During the Christmas rush mail is very slow, so we suggest that you 
order early. 

2. The meeting was called to order by the president. He informed the 
girls that their contributions to the Thanksgiving basket were due. 

3. The tallest peak is Mount Mansfield. It is 4,393 feet high. It can 
be reached by automobile over good, although steep, roads. 

4. The northeast comer of Vermont is almost a wilderness. There are 
many bears and deer there. 

5. One night last week I was weary from shopping all afternoon in the big 
stores, and I just happened to be in time to meet the subway rush. 

6. Now large buses are used to transport people from one place to 
another and they get people to their destinations quickly and they are very 
comfortable. 

7. Then there is the bookkeeper. She is a loud-mouthed, inaccurate 
youngster. 

8. There are many outstanding facts about California. Some of these I 
shall enumerate. 

9. There is also a big stucco house. In this house are sold all sorts of 
souvenirs, soda, popcorn, and candy. 

10. Silk was very expensive. It was imported from the East. 

11. We turned back, and the wind and snow beat against our faces, hin¬ 
dering our progress. 

12. The magazine I am going to write about is the Mystery Magazine. 
This magazine has no illustrations in it except at the beginning of each story. 

13. Below the rapids the channel curves sharply to the left, and the violence 
of the current has hewn a circular basin out of the rock. 

14. The central instrument in the room is the microphone, commonly 
called the “mike."' The sounds first go into it. 

15. An old man was selling souvenirs at a little stand, and we asked 
him how to get to the Glen. 

16. In midsummer the cotton plants blossom profusely, and a cotton 
field is a beautiful sight. 

17. The ship was sinking fast and Humphrey leaped overboard and a fife 
preserver was his only protection. 

18. We visited Washington’s monument, and it certainly is a large and 
beautiful one. 

19. In the winter I can’t swim or play baseball, so I skate and play basket- 
baU.‘ 


476 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


20. After a strenuous day in the woods I was tired, so I went to bed early. 

21. I have sent a copy of the magazine to Miss Cordelia S. Allen. It no 
doubt has reached her by this time. 

22. From September 10 to September 15 the national championship tennis 
tournament is held at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest HiUs. In this 
tournament players from aU parts of the United States and from many foreign 
countries compete. 

23. Montreal is one of the oldest cities in North America, and it is filled 
with historic landmarks of early days. 

24. The United States ranks third among the great wool-growing nations, 
but it has never raised enough to meet its needs. 

25. Her father and mother were dead, so there was no one who really cared 
for her. 

(3) Appositive 

Which is better? 

1. Horse mackerel is tuna — the tuna one buys in the can for salads. 

2. Horse mackerel is tuna. It is the tuna one buys in the can for salads. 

Number 1 is briefer and more forceful than number 2. Fre¬ 
quently an appositive saves words and improves the sentence 
structure. Appositives help one to build better sentences. Do 
you use them? Unless you write better than the ordinary pupil 
in grades seven to twelve, you should use about twice as many 
appositives as you are in the habit of using. 

Practice 4 

In each of the following, combine the sentences by substituting 
an appositive for one of the sentences: 

1. Hofer is the captain of our team. He won the toss. 

2. Mr. Holmes talked about building up a world spirit of peace and good 
will. He is a delightfully entertaining speaker. 

3. Since father’s death Sidney has assumed the responsibility of support¬ 
ing the family. He is my oldest brother. 

4. I found my cartoon in the Brooklyn Citizen. It is a picture about the 
milk graft. It is called “The Optimist.” 

5. The chief characters are Dick Hyde and Katherine van Loon. Hyde 
is a young Enghsh captain; Miss van Loon, a demure Dutch maiden. 

6. In Canton he became acquainted with Lydia Armstrong. She was the 
daughter of a respected banker. 

7. Vermont is commonly known as the Green Mountain State. It is a 
northeastern state bordering on Canada. 

8. In 1693 Wilham and Mary College was established in Williamsburg, 
Virginia. It was the second college in America. 


BETTER SENTENCES 


477 


9. My tutor was a friend as well as director and critic of my work. He 
told me that there were a number of lectures offered by the university that 
term which it would be advisable for me to attend. 

10. There are thousands of orphans in the care of the Near East Relief. 
They are boys and girls who must be trained for self-support and sent out as 
fast as they grow old enough to take care of themselves. 

11. None of these men took off until he had inspected every part of his 
ship. He inspected his motor, instruments, and plane. 

12. Boston is the chief trade center of New England. The city has a 
population of more than three quarters of a million. 

(4) Series 

Which is better? 

1. The stenographer finishes her work, then she dabs some powder on her 
nose, after this she pulls her hat down over her eyes, and then she dashes out 
of the office. 

2. The stenographer finishes her work, dabs some powder on her nose, 
pulls her hat down over her eyes, and dashes out of the oflBce. 

The compound predicate is terser and more forceful than the 
compound sentence with she. 

Practice 5 

Improve these sentences by making of each compound sen¬ 
tence a simple sentence with a compound predicate: 

1. Seaports receive the raw material for the mills and factories; then they 

also ship away the manufactured goods. ^ ^ • j i • 

2. Victoria, an African two-horned rhinoceros, is very docile, and she is 
very friendly toward her keeper, and she seems thoroughly to enjoy herself. 

3. Dorothy will graduate from South Side High School in June, and then 
she will enter Vassar College in September. 

4. Marceline ran away from the tailor to whom he had been apprenticed; 
then he crawled under a circus tent, and soon he fell asleep. 

5. Syrian bears are often trained to dance, and they perform various tricks 
at command, and they usuaUy lead very miserable Hves at the hands of 

gypsie^s ^ showed positive genius in piano playing, and at eleven 

he started his career as a boy pianist. 

The compound predicate is only one kind of series. Four other 
varieties are: 

A Seeies of Adjectives 

The explorer was tall, lean, and ruddy and had a long, narrow, thin face. 


478 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


A Series of Adverbs 

Walter polished the car quietly, quickly, and thoroughly. 

A Series of Nouns 

Liszt had harsh, strong features, aquiline nose, Jovian brow, lionhke mane of 
hair that fell almost to his shoulders. 

A Series of Prepositional Phrases 

Through the woods, across the field, and up the mountain the deer ran to 
escape the hunter. 


Teactice 6 

Find in a newspaper, a magazine, or a book five good sentences 
which illustrate the use of the series. 

(5) Participle 

Most pupils can improve their style by using more participles. 
An average adult uses twice as many participles as a typical 
pupil in grades seven to twelve. 

Notice that participles help us to express briefly and pleasingly 
what we have to say. 

(Childish) The house stands far back from the street. It was built half 
a century ago. 

(Better) The house, built half a century ago, stands far back from the 
street. 

Practice 7 

Improve these sentences by substituting participles for some 
of the verbs in principal or subordinate clauses: 

1. People go through Ausable Chasm in a large rowboat which holds about 
twenty-five people. 

2. In the Literary Digest I saw a cartoon which was entitled “Getting 
Dizzy.’’ 

3. Hoben dropped back to his own fifty-yard line. Then he flung the 
leather far down the field. 

4. In the cartoon the man is in an airplane which is labeled “Annual 
Expenses.” 

5. Once there was a western cowboy, and his name was Jim Desmond. 

6. Pierre drove the stake into the ground; then he attempted to rise to 
his feet. 


BETTER SENTENCES 479 

7. When thirteen years old, Jim was an errand boy. He earned his three 
dollars a week, but still delivered papers before reporting for work. 

8. The Bank of England was established in 1694. It has been for years 
one of the great financial institutions of the world. 

9. If Detroit is measured by the use of electricity, it has grown forty- 
fold in twenty years. 

10. Galveston stands on an island with a deep sheltered harbor between 
it and the mainland. It is one of the most conveniently located seaports in 
America. 

11. She stepped from her house, and then she looked first of all upward. 

12. I struggled doggedly on and looked nowhere but straight ahead, and 
I noticed Adolph suddenly extend his hand to me. 

13. Mr. Si mm ons returned to the roomj then he sank into bis rocking- 
chair and sat very still. 

14. I saw that beyond the mountain lay either a channel or a deep fiord, 
which extended for many miles. 


Practice 8 

Tell entertainingly an incident of a book you have read re¬ 
cently. Use five or more participles and underscore them. Use 
also two or more appositives and draw two lines under them. 

(6) Interrogative, Imperative, and Exclamatory Sentences 

The sixth method of applying grammar to the improvement 
of one^s style is by using occasionally for variety an interrogative, 
an imperative, or an exclamatory sentence. 

Example: 

A BICYCLE RIDE 

2 The most exciting bicycle ride I ever had was in Connecticut three 
years ago. 2 The wreck we called a bicycle added to the thrill of the ride. 
24 It was an old, rusty tandem which had neither a chain nor a brake. 

4 The tires of this ancient vehicle held hardly any air, and the spokes 
were either missing or bent. 13 On this contraption my friend Bill 
Simmons and I rode down the hill in front of our house. 

14 Our getting on the bicycle and his pushing off I still remember. 
1 With a creaking of wheels we started down the long descent. 15 Down 
a short hill we flew, gaining momentum at every turn of the wheels. 

5 The ground leveled off for about ten feet — then we shot out into space 
like a ski-jumper, continuing our flight downward. 12 After this hill 
came a long stretch of level ground, where we slowed down considerably. 


480 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


12 Just as I thought the ride would end, we reached the top of the 
third and last hiU. 1 Once more we raced along around a bend at break¬ 
neck speed to thunder down the home stretch. 12 As we reached the 
foot of the hill, our front wheel hit a bump — crunch! 5 I felt myself 
flying through the air and — thud! 1245 After I regained my breath, 
I found Bill examining the bent and twisted remains of our once glorious 
tandem. 2 It was the last time we rode on it. — Pupil’s Theme 



Courtesy of the German Tourist Information Office 

Sailboat in a Stiff Breeze 


Pkactice 9 

About a ride, perhaps an unusual one, write a true story. Or 
make up a story about a ride in the sailboat shown in the picture. 
Improve your sentences in the ways studied. Then before a sen¬ 
tence place 1 if there is something except adjectives before the 
subject, 2 if it is complex, 3 if there is an appositive in it, 4 if it 
contains a series of words or phrases, 5 if there is a participle in 
it, 6 if it is interrogative, exclamatory, or imperative. The 12 
before the first sentence of the last paragraph of “A Bicycle Ride"' 








BETTER SENTENCES 


481 

shows that the sentence has something except adjectives before 
the subject (1) and is complex (2). 

Repetition 

Sometimes there is no good way to avoid using a word two or 
three times. Do not, however, needlessly repeat words. Use 
synonyms or rebuild the sentences. Discover unnecessary repe¬ 
titions by reading your themes aloud. 

(Faulty) I did not notice any other faults in his book report other than 
those already mentioned. 

(Better) I did not notice any faults in his book report other than those 
already mentioned. 

Do not repeat the idea in shghtly different words. 

(Faulty) George Washington is still respected, admired, and honored at 
present. 

(Better) George Washington is still respected, admired, and honored. 


Practice 10 

Improve the following sentences: 

1. The description of the passenger pigeon is very interestingly described. 

2. Sitting in the center of the hut, sat the doctor. 

3. Penrod is very mischievous and likes to get into a lot of mischief. 

4. Ned Higgins is brought into the story in several parts of the story. 

5. I corrected the error successfully. 

6. One summer I was unable to go away for the summer vacation. 

7. He referred back to a remark of the previous speaker, a poor widow 
woman. 

8. According to my notion, I think it is a practicable plan. 

9. His work was aimless, and he didn’t have any purpose. 

10. They asked from whence I came. 

11. At the age of eighteen months old I went with my mother to England 
to visit my grandparents. 

12. The whole story is interesting throughout. 

13. As the previous speaker before me pointed out, these facts are abso¬ 
lutely true. 

14. In my opinion, I believe Robert Frost is one of the greatest American 
poets who is still living today. 

15. Everything in this artificial jungle really appeared to be alive and real. 

16. That paragraph is extremely difficult and hard to understand. 

17. Roosevelt wrote an autobiography of his hfe. 


482 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Wordiness 

Strike out unnecessary words. Express each thought in the 
most compact way in which it can be expressed without loss of 
some of its meaning. 

(Wordy) My subject is an interesting one in which you all will be in¬ 
terested. 

(Better) My subject is interesting. 

(Wordy) It was only two weeks ago when we played the deciding game 
against the YeUow Jackets. 

(Better) Only two weeks ago we played the deciding game against the 
Yellow Jackets. 


Practice 11 

Improve these sentences by striking out unnecessary words: 

1. There is no sense at all in the sentence. 

2. A large reward of one hundred dollars will be given to the finder of 
the child. 

3. The high school is only one block away from the railroad station. 

4. If a pupil fails, the taxpayers must again pay for his repeating the 
subject. 

5. We still wonder whether the young lover was given to the fierce tiger 
or was he given to the beautiful lady? 

6. It is true what you read yesterday in the newspaper. 

7. No one knew the source of this story but nevertheless it was believed. 

8. Looking down, I saw an ugly, hideous sea monster attached to my toe. 

9. He thought he had made a miserable failure of himself. 

10. One morning after we had arisen and had our morning’s repast, we 
decided to take an old Ford to convey us to our chosen hunting grounds. 

11. Last summer a friend of mine and I decided to spend two weeks motor¬ 
ing through New England. 

12. I am sure that if my little brother could write, he would teU you how 
much he enjoys himself with the toy engine. 

13. We had to take off the tire, patch up the hole, and then replace it 
again. 

14. Please send by C.O.D. the following articles. 

15. When Mr. Holmes concluded his speech, every pupil felt that he had 
heard something which was wonderful and worthwhile. 

16. I hope you will take heed from this warning. 

17. Odysseus was wily and courageous and everything. 

18. That comma is not the least bit necessary at all. 

19. He never before in his life had handled a gun. 

20. It was a long time that Beth was sick. 


CHAPTER XXII 

PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALIZATION 

CAPITALIZATION 

1. Capitalize proper nouns and adjectives derived from proper 
nouns: George Washington, Spanish, Lloyd George, Peter the Great, 
English. {History, physics, mathematics, and biology are common 
nouns.) 

Adjectives that have assumed a general meaning are not capi¬ 
talized : 

pasteurize, stoic endurance, china eggs, morocco leather, india rubber, 
oriental customs, puritanical, roman type, mercurial, herculean, manila 
paper, palm-beach suit. 

Proper names include: 

(1) Names of political parties, religious sects, nations, and 
races: 

Democrats, Liberals, Republicans, Christian, Protestant, Church of 
England, Baptist, Jew, Christian Science, Catholic, Hungarian, Indians, 
Hottentots. 

(2) Historical events, periods, and documents: 

Washington’s Farewell Address, Middle Ages, Commonwealth, Civil 
War, Battle of Verdun, Peace of Paris, First Amendment, Magna Charta, 
Declaration of Independence. 

(3) Days of the week, months of the year, and holidays (but 
not names of seasons): 

Sunday, Saturday, January, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Washington’s 
Birthday, summer, spring, winter, autumn, fall, midsummer, midwinter. 

(4) Geographical names and names of buildings: 

Mississippi River, Pacific Ocean, Rocky Mountains, Old World, 
North Pole, Western Hemisphere, Jupiter, Central Park, Fifth Avenue, 
Thirty-fourth Street, White House, Union Square, Woolworth Building, 
Hotel Puritan, Lancaster County, Juniata Township, Seventh Ward, 

483 


484 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Fourth Congressional District, Swiss Republic, New York City, Holy 
Land. (Some authorities prefer Missouri river, Prospect park, Green 
mountains.) 

Do not capitalize words like river, county, state, city, and empire 
when not used as individual names or parts of such names: island 
of Cuba, republic of Brazil, city of Chicago, state of Iowa. In the 
Gulf of Mexico, Gulf is capitalized because it is part of the name. 
Mexico is not the name. In the city of San Francisco, the name is 
San Francisco. 

(5) The words North, South, East, Northwest when they name 
particular parts of the country. (Do not capitalize the adjectives 
derived from these words.) 

He sailed south from New York to Cuba. 

While traveling through the South and West, he enjoyed southern 
hospitality and western grandeur. 

(6) Titles of organizations and institutions: 

League of Nations, Epworth League, Harvard Club, Eastern District 
High School, Union Pacific Railroad, American Book Company, Uni¬ 
versity of Wisconsin, First Baptist. Church. 

Do not capitalize words like high school, society, club, and 
company unless clearly individual names or parts of such names: 

the high school in Topeka, the company, the club, the association, the 
hotel. 

(7) Names of governmental bodies and departments: 

Congress, Senate, House of Representatives, Parliament, House of 
Lords, Health Department, Newport Town Council, Education Depart¬ 
ment, Fifty-first Congress, Supreme Court. 

Note that in capitalizing a compound word the second word 
is capitalized only if it is a noun or a proper adjective: 

Thirty-fifth Street, Anti-Saloon League, pan-American. 

Do not capitalize inexact or incomplete names: 

state legislature, the board, the council, the department. 

(8) Titles used with proper names and titles of the highest 
governmental ofl&cers used without the proper names: 


PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALIZATION 


485 


The President, Attorney General Mitchell, Rear Admiral Dewey, 
Major General Harbord, King George, the King, James Dawson, Ph.D., 
LL.D. 

The President and the Secretary of War interviewed Colonel Roosevelt. 

Among those present were a colonel, a doctor, and Professor Simpson. 

Do not capitalize a title preceded by the and followed by the 
name: 

the apostle Paul, the countess Olivia, the duke Orsino. 

Note also this usage: 

Paul V. McNutt, governor of Indiana. 

Franklin D. Roosevelt, president of the United States. 

(9) Words like unclej aunt, cousin, and grandmother used with 
proper names. 

In Buffalo father, mother, and I visited Aunt Margaret and Uncle Fred. 

2. Capitalize the first word of a complete sentence, a quoted 
sentence, a sentence embodied in another sentence, or a line of 
poetry. 

A police commissioner of New York City said, “Don’t run across 
streets through heavy traffic. The busiest man I know wastes thirty 
minutes a day; why risk your life to save five seconds crossing a street?” 

The question is, Who will be elected? 

We look before and after. 

And pine for what is not: 

Our sincerest laughter 

With some pain is fraught; 

Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. 

— Percy Bysshe Shelley 

3. In titles of books, articles, and compositions capitalize the 
first word and the other principal words: 

The Light That Failed, From the Bottom Up, The Lure of the Labrador 
Wild. 

Articles, short prepositions, and short conjunctions are capi¬ 
talized only when they begin titles. 

4. Capitalize nouns clearly personified. 

With Milton, Nature was not his first love. 


486 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


5. Capitalize names of the Deity and names for the Bible and 
divisions of the Bible: the Almighty^ the Scriptures, the Bible, 
the Pentateuch, Paul’s Epistles, Old Testament, Psalms, A pronoun 
referring to the Supreme Being is capitalized only if the reference 
otherwise might not be clear. 

6. In the salutation of a friendly letter capitalize the first word 
and all nouns; in the complimentary close capitalize the first 
word only. 

7. Capitalize the pronoun I and the interjection 0. 

8. Capitalize the first word of each division of a topical outline. 

9. Capitalize a word indicating an important division of a book 
or series of books: 

Act I, Vol. IV, Book II, Part VI, No. 7. 

If the division is a minor one, do not use the capital: 

scene 1, article 2, chapter VI, page 69, line 22, section 3, paragraph 5. 

Practice 1 

Capitalize the following for use within sentences. Give a reason 
for each capital inserted. 

1. act I, scene 2. 2. the age of elizabeth. 3. alexander the great. 
4. astor hotel. 5. the avon and thames rivers. 6. battle of the marne. 
7. bible. 8. pasteurize. 9. Christian. 10. paris green. 11. the city of 
milwaukee. 12. the declaration of independence. 13. decoration day. 
14. vol. IV, book 2, chapter 5, page 16, line 25. 15. english. 16. un¬ 
christian. 17. antitrust law. 18. first methodist church. 19. fifth 
avenue. 20. fifty-third congress. 21. forty-second street. 22. fourth 
of July. 23. general french. 24. police department. 25. gulf of mexico. 
26. high-school education. 27. a high school in Chicago. 28. hottentot. 
29. house of representatives. 30. india rubber. 31. james beatty, a.m., 
ph.d. 32. jewish. 33. colonel james nubel. 34. labor day. 35. the 
macmillan company. 36. the middle ages. 37. mississippi river. 38. the 
boston transcript. 39. the old world. 40. oriental customs. 41. the 
pope. 42. Presbyterians. 43. president roosevelt. 44. the president of 
the united states. 45. w. h. taft, former president of the united states. 
46. prospect park. 47. a trip through the south. 48. puritanical ideas. 
49. queen victoria. 50. rear admiral dewey. 51. the renaissance. 
52. republicans and democrats. 53. Shakespeare’s as you like it. 54. the 
society for the prevention of vice. 55. former president coolidge. 56. the 


PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALIZATION 


487 


western states. 57. the state of massachusetts. 58, stoic endurance. 
59. summer. 60. tenth ward. 61. third congressional district. 62. tues- 
day. 63. union league club. 64. united kingdom. 65. vice president 
curtis. 66. west shore railroad. 67. the white house. 68. woolworth 
building. 69. winter. 70. young people’s society of Christian endeavor. 
71. my dear young nephew, (salutation). 72. my dear sir: (salutation). 
73. yours truly, (complimentary close). 74. mathematics, Spanish, and 
physics. 75. theodore roosevelt high school. 

Practice 2 

Capitalize the following. Give the reason in each case. 

1. He was nominated for president unanimously by the republican 
party convention in 1904. he remained silent until toward the close of 
the campaign, when he delivered his famous blast against his opponent, 
alton b. parker. judge parker had charged that national chairman 
cortelyou, with the president’s knowledge, was getting contributions from 
corporations by reason of his power over them as secretary of commerce 
and labor, the president issued a statement putting parker in the ananias 
club, and it was here that he employed his famous “square deal” term, 
saying, “all i ask is a square deal.” 

2. “I should like,” ruskin says in fors clavigera, “to destroy and rebuild 
the houses of parliament, the national gallery, and the east end of london; 
and to destroy, without rebuilding, the new town of edinburgh, the north 
suburb of geneva, and the city of new york.” 

3. Through the courtesy of the department of parks oak trees in 
memory of those who died in the world war were planted in the streets 
adjoining the high school, on Christmas and decoration day the high- 
school pupils under the direction of the memorial committee will hang 
wreaths of flowers on the trees. 

4. Cyrus hall mccormick of Virginia, the inventor of the grain har¬ 
vester, exhibited his machine in 1851 at the world’s fair in london. After 
trials in english fields the london papers said that his machine was “worth 
to the farmers of, england the whole cost of the exhibition.” 

Hundred Per Cent Test—Capitalization 

Copy the following sentences. Capitalize them correctly. If 
you omit a needed capital or insert a capital that is not needed, 
the sentence is wrong. 

1. I attended a meeting of the resolutions committee presided over 
by senator glass of Virginia. 


488 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


2. Before entering thomas jefferson high school last fall, he attended 
a high school in st. louis. 

3. The state of Washington is bounded on the south by Oregon and 
on the west by the pacific ocean. 

4. A committee of the house of representatives was ready to report 
on the work of the league of nations and the world court. 

5. The democratic platform aroused the enthusiasm of the south by 
demanding the “reannexation of texas,” and strongly appealed to the 
north by calling for the “reoccupation of Oregon.” 

6. Texas claimed the rio grande as her western line, while mexico 
declared it was the nueces river. 

7. As soon as this news reached Washington, president polk sent his 
famous message to congress, declaring: “mexico has invaded our territory 
and shed american blood on american soil.” 

8. By military force and political agitation the bolsheviki extended 
their system of organization throughout Siberia, into turkestan, and in 
the Caucasus region east of the black sea, until, in addition to european 
russia, they had control over one-third of the continent of asia. 

9. The president and judge wilson spent labor day at the biltmore 
hotel. 

10. Margaret said, “while riding west this summer on the union 
pacific railroad, i read chapters I-XII of my memories of eighty years by 
chauncey m. depew.” 


PUNCTUATION 

Punctuation is a method of making clear the construction of 
a sentence. Hence a writer should understand the grammatical 
structure of his sentence and then punctuate so as to show it. 

Period 

1. The period is used after imperative and declarative sentences. 

The black leopard is the most ill-tempered of all feline animals. 

Open the window. 

2. The period is used after abbreviations; as, AM., Conn. Do 
not use a period after per cent or Roman numerals in a sentence. 

In chapter VI there are two one hundred per cent tests. 

Comma 

To ^‘set off’’ by commas requires two commas unless the words 
to be set off come first or last in the sentence. 


PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALIZATION 


489 


1. Set off by commas words in direct address. 

John, what is your answer? 

2. As a rule, appositives are set off by commas. 

Cheerfulness is health; the opposite, melancholy, is disease., 

Appositives preceded by or and titles and degrees after a name 
are set off. 

The ounce, or snow leopard, is rare and beautiful. 

^ Thomas Kite Brown, A.M., Ph.D., is one of the editors of the dic¬ 
tionary. 

The comma is not used to set off brief, commonly used, and 
very closely connected appositives: 

the poet Browning, the orator Burke, he himself, the year 1930, my 
Uncle George, my friend Khby, the word one. 

3. Most parenthetical expressions are set off by commas. A 
parenthetical expression is one slipped into the sentence and 
loosely connected with the rest of the sentence. 

The American fruit grower has not, however, lost sight of the fact 
that he is a merchant. 

The lion, like everything great, has his share of critics and detractors. 

The comma, as a rule, is not used to set off also, perhaps, indeed, 
therefore, at least, in fact, nevertheless, likewise, and other parenthet¬ 
ical expressions that do not require a pause in reading. 

Well, why, or now at the beginning of a conversational sentence 
is commonly set off; etc. is always set off. 

Why, I hadn’t thought of that. 

A market is a place where potatoes, beans, corn, etc., are offered for 
sale. 

4. Use the comma to separate expressions in a series. 

When in a series of three or more items and is used between the 

last two only, most authorities place a comma before and. 

There is no substitute for thorough-going, ardent, and sincere earnest¬ 
ness. 

Verdun, Jutland Reef, the Somme, and the Marne were four impor¬ 
tant battles of the war. 


490 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


If I cannot correspond with you, if I cannot learn your mind, if I 
cannot cooperate with you, I cannot be your friend. 

When all the conjunctions are used, no conuna is required unless 
the expressions are long. 

He is brave and courteous and generous. 

He was not rich enough to give the boy a suitable money reward, and 
therefore offered to teach him the elements of telegraphy. 

In the word group little red hen, no comma is used, because the 
adjectives little red are so closely connected as to seem one solid 
modifier. Likewise the adjectives in solid gold scarf pin and puny 
right hand seem solid modifiers, not separate descriptions. 

In expressions like an honest, ambitious, tolerant man and a 
wide, ferocious, straggling mustache, which require the comma, the 
insertion of and does not change the sense: an honest and ambitious 
and tolerant man; a wide and ferocious and straggling mustache, 

5. In an address or date each item after the first is set off by 
commas. 

Edward Eggleston, the author of The Hoosier Schoolmaster, was born 
at Vevay, Indiana, in 1837. 

On November 11, 1918, an armistice dictated by General Foch was 
signed. 

6. The comma is used to set off a contrasting expression in¬ 
troduced by not. 

The sword is honorable, not as an instrument, but as a symbol of seK- 
sacrifice. 

7. Use a comma after yes or no when not a complete answer. 

Yes, you’re right. 

8. The comma is used after the salutation of a friendly letter 
and the complimentary close of any letter. 

Dear Isabel, 

Yours truly, 

9. Occasionally, when no other rule justifies the use of a punctua¬ 
tion mark, a comma is necessary to prevent misreading. 


PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALIZATION 491 

For, a moment later I saw my mistake. 

The night before, we bought a tent to take with us. 

To the wise, youth is a time for training. 

On April 7, 65, 70, or perhaps 80 enrolled. 

10. As a rule, the comma is used between the principal parts 
of a compound sentence if they are joined by a conjunction (and, 
huty or, nor, so, yet, while, though). 

Man was made to be active, and he is never so happy as when he is so. 

Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other. 

Exception. His country called and he went. 

No comma is required, because the clauses are short and closely 
connected in sense. 

11. The comma occasionally takes the place of an omitted verb. 

General Haig was the commander of the Enghsh; General Petain, of 
the French; and General Pershing, of the Americans. 

We respect deeds; they, words. 

12. The comma is used to set off a short direct quotation. 

^'Why, Silver,” said the captain, “if you had pleased to be an honest 
man, you might have been sitting in your own galley.” 

13. Use a comma after an introductory adverb clause. 

When a man is wrong and won’t admit it, he always gets angry. 

If you want to live and keep well, you must eat proper food. 

The comma may be omitted after a restrictive introductory 
clause, especially a short one. 

(Right) When he reached home he found the telegram. 

(Right) When he reached home, he found the telegram. 

14. Use the comma to set off nonrestrictive phrases and clauses. 
If the omission of the subordinate clause would change the mean¬ 
ing of the principal clause or destroy its sense, the clause is re¬ 
strictive, and no comma is required. A restrictive adjective clause 
answers the question, ^‘Which one?” or the question, ^‘Which 
ones?^^ A nonrestrictive modifier gives additional information. 


492 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 

Restrictive (or Essential) Phrases and Clauses 

1. The French boy who does not master the few fundamentals of speech 
and writing is an object of pity. 

2. Any one feeding or annoying the animals will be fined. 

3. Never insert a comma unless you know a reason for using it. 

4. Stay at home this evening till 1 call for you. 

1. The French hoy is an object of pity is not sensible. The clause 
who does not master the few fundamentals of speech and writing 
answers the question “Which boy?^’ and is necessary to the sense 
of the principal clause. 

2, 3. Any one will he fined and never insert a comma do not make 
sense without the modifiers. 

4. Although the clause stay at home this evening makes sense, 
its meaning is changed by the addition of the subordinate clause. 

Nonrestrictive (or Nonessential) Phrases and Clauses 

The itahcized phrases and clauses in the following sentences 
are nonrestrictive, because their omission does not change the 
sense of the principal clauses: 

There was a bond of mutual confidence and affection between us, 
which grew stronger and stronger as the months passed. 

I had the pleasure of meeting Marshal Foch, whose manner was direct 
and simple. 

It is a bit difficult for me to write about my favorite character in 
fiction, because I have not found him yet. 

William Vaughn Moody, who wrote The Great Divide, was born at 
Spencer, Indiana. 

As a rule, a participial phrase at the beginning of a sentence is 
nonrestrictive and is therefore set off from the rest of the sentence 
by a comma. 

Deprived of the possibilities of importing foodstuffs. Great Britain 
could not sustain herself for more than six weeks without the most 
severe rationing. 

Always use a comma before as, for, and since when the clause 
gives a reason. 

I went to bed early, for I was tired. 


PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALIZATION 493 

Practice 3 

Classify the phrases and subordinate clauses as restrictive and 
nonrestrictive, give a reason in each case, and punctuate the 
sentences: 

1. Any boy who is intelligent can learn to punctuate correctly. 

2. Mary Rafton who is in the tenth-year English class seldom makes 
a mistake in punctuation. 

3. Paris which is the most beautiful city in France is the world’s 
fashion center. 

4. The Newport which is located in Pennsylvania has a variety of 
flourishing industries. 

5. Charles Thomas running to catch a car stumbled and fell. 

6. A fat man running to catch a car is likely to injure his heart. 

7. A permanent home for raccoons has been established near the 
southern end of the bear dens where its inmates will be near their relatives. 

8. Union painters never work on a job where a spraying machine is 
used. 

9. Be sure to visit Healthland where you will find plenty of fresh 
air, sparkling drinking water, and pure mflk. 

10. I lay down on the grass where for nine hours I slept soundly. 

11. The next day we reached San Francisco which is the natural outlet 
for the products of the valley of California. 

12. I shall support him for peace and prosperity depend upon his 
election. 

Practice 4 

Insert necessary commas and give the rule for each comma 
used: 

1. To the Ladies is a bright clean mixture of human nature caricature 
common sense and satire. 

2. The movie scenario as a rule reflects life as it is seen by the movie 
writer and movie director neither of whom knows anything about the 
life of Newport society people and Wall Street magnates. 

3. In the second inning Manion the St. Louis catcher tried to dodge 
one of Ruffing’s curves and couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. 

4. To the reporter Cooper said “Yes if the Pirates keep on in their 
form of the last few days Barney Dreyfuss can start building those 
world’s series stands.” 

5. In the first place let us discuss the sun which is 93,000,000 miles 
from the earth. 

6. The first line is well written but the second line has a vague allu¬ 
sion to trees. 


494 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


7. On December 10 1928 in Louisville Kentucky John Thornton said 
‘‘Truth like gold shines brighter by collision.’^ 

8. All classes high and low rich and poor have the same rights. 

9. Having frowned upon the restless Bob the old gentleman began 
to read the letter. 

10. He was astonished at the eccentric not to say extraordinary be¬ 
havior of his companions. 

11. Full instructions are given for the construction of various wireless 
receiving sets but the beginner is advised to experiment first with the 
simpler ones. 

12. In the valley below the people looked like pigmies. 

13. “George” said his mother “take the branch and the cherries to our 
neighbor and tell him what you have done.” 

14. I went out to meet my father who had gone fishing. 

15. “This country” said Herbert Hoover “gave me schooling inde¬ 
pendence of action and opportunity for service and honor.” 

16. Seeing us walking Mr. Jameson who was trying out his new Buick 
asked us to ride with him. 

17. When about ten minutes’ gasoline remained in the pressure tank 
and still I could not see the faintest outline of any object on the ground 
I decided to leave the plane rather than attempt to land blindly. 

18. Wlien a contract for one million dollars was sent Lindbergh through 
his associates he cabled back to them “You must remember this expedi¬ 
tion was to advance aviation not to make money.” 

19. In Lancelot and Elaine when Gawain sent by the king to give the 
diamond to Lancelot gives it to Elaine his conscience tells him that he 
should obey the king. 

20. When describing the castle of Lynette’s sister Tennyson uses such 
words as crimson golden rosy and purple. 

Mastery Test—The Comma 

Copy the following sentences and punctuate them correctly. 
Overpunctuation is just as bad as underpunctuation. Therefore 
if you either omit a needed punctuation mark or insert a mark 
that is not needed, the sentence is wrong. Three of the sentences 
are correctly punctuated. 

1. The telegram said that my mother’s only brother who has been 
traveling for years was coming the next day to visit us. 

2. A book that is filled with good stories is popular. 

3. Next the guide took the visitors to the second floor on which are 
some of the sleeping rooms and two spacious handball courts. 


PUNCTUATION'AND CAPITALIZATION 495 

4. The woman who maketh a good pudding in silence is better than 
she who maketh a tart reply. 

5. As there were Indian horse thieves in the neighborhood a guard 
was put on duty at the corral. 

6. The flaw in King Lear was that he liked to be flattered. 

7. Boots and Saddles written by the wife of General Custer tells of 
her life with the General while he commanded the forces in the north 
central part of the United States. 

8. “At present” said our guide “there are but two herds of wild bison 
in existence.” 

9. It is the guilt not the scaffold which constitutes the shame. 

10. Meat has always been considered the best tissue or flesh building 
food and for this reason people have always eaten a great deal of it. 

11. There is however a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue. 

12. Dr. Wiley said “Yes in cured meats the problem is much easier 
as ham bacon shoulder etc. may be kept indefinitely.” 

13. Virtue is usually though not necessarily connected with intelli¬ 
gence; vice with ignorance. 

14. On August 30 1930 I came home from my vacation brown and 
strong for I spent most of the month in climbing mountains canoeing 
swimming playing golf and sleeping. 

15. Margaret Deland has immortalized her birthplace Manchester a 
suburb of Allegheny Pennsylvania in Old Chester Tales. 

16. Yes Harry I wish I had taken chemistry. 

17. The night before we had stayed at the Statler in Cleveland. 

18. The girl who was called on to recite said “Uriah’s hair which was 
red was cropped close to his head.” 

19. Disraeli who is responsible for all the action of the play is an old 
man very clever and witty. 

20. Realizing that the son was not responsible for what his father had 
done Jim led the party and rescued the lad. 

Semicolon 

1. The semicolon is used between the members of a compound 
sentence when the parts are both long and subdivided by commas, 
when no connective is used, or when the connecting word is more¬ 
over, consequently, thus, hence, therefore, besides, also, then, never¬ 
theless, still, otherwise, likewise, or another independent adverb. 

Caesar was dead; hence Rome was in confusion. 

Mr. Sack will probably reach New York about noon today; but if he 
is unavoidably detained in Washington, you will excuse him. 


496 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Property can be paid for; the lives of innocent people cannot be. 

My left has been rolled up; my right has been driven in; therefore I 
have ordered an advance along my center. 

2. The semicolon is used to separate the items of an enumera¬ 
tion if they are subdivided by commas. 

For further information about my character, ability, and training you 
may write or telephone to— 

Reverend H. B. Jackson, Mineola, New York; Professor J. W. Inglis, 
212 Sixtieth Street, New York City; Mr. J. W. Pichon, 114 Gown Street, 
Forest Hills, New York. 

Namely, for instance, for example, that is, and as, when introduc¬ 
ing explanations, are preceded by the semicolon or the dash and 
followed by the comma. 

A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun; as, he, we, who. 

A restrictive modifier limits the word modified; that is, it makes a 
general word more specific in its application. 

Colon 

1. Use the colon after the salutation of a business letter. 

Dear Mr. Webster: 

2. The colon is used to introduce a list, an illustration, or a 
long or formal quotation or statement. If such introducing word 
or word-group as this, thus, as follows, the following, or these words 
is used, the colon follows it. 

Roosevelt began his speech as follows: “A hundred and forty-one years 
ago today, the United States became a nation.” 

New Harmony, Indiana, is important for the following reasons: {a) it 
was the seat of an interesting communistic society; (h) it was one of the 
earliest centers of the abolition movement; (c) it was the place where 
occurred the first prohibition of the liquor traffic by administrative 
action; (d) it was here that women were given the right to vote on local 
legislative matters. 

Note that the colon is not used in the following sentence: 

The parts of speech are noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, prepo¬ 
sition^ conjunction, and interjection. 


PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALIZATION 497 

Interrogation Point 

The interrogation point is used after a direct question. 

What is the proper culture of celery? 

The interrogation point is not used after an indirect question. 

He asked what the proper culture of celery is. 

A period is used after a request courteously worded in inter¬ 
rogative form. 

Will you please hand in the report before nine o’clock tomorrow 
morning. 

Will you please send me your latest catalog. 

Exclamation Point 

The exclamation point is used to mark an expression of strong 
emotion. 

Three cheers for the President! 

Whew! That’s over! 

Oh, what a wreck! 

Notice the comma after the interjection oh. An interjection 
which is a real exclamation is followed by an exclamation point. 

0 is used with a noun in direct address and is never followed by 
an exclamation point. 

0 John, why did you tease your little brother? 

Dash 

\ 

1. The dash is used to indicate a sudden change in sense or 
construction. 

And, as for money — don’t you remember the old saying, ''Enough 
is as good as a feast”? 

I mean — you know what I mean. 

2. Dashes may be used to make parenthetical, appositive, or 
explanatory matter stand out clearly. Dashes are less formal and 
more common than parentheses. 

Our club has this term fallen behind last term’s record — I shall quote 


498 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


the exact figures of the treasurer — $1.75 on dues, $8.45 on entertain¬ 
ments, and $1.84 on fines. 

3. The dash is used before a word that sums up preceding 
particulars. 

Tears, prayers, supplications — none of these moved him. 

Fishing, camping, touring — all kinds of outdoor activities now demand 
attention. 

The dash is seldom used with any punctuation mark except a 
period. 

Quotation Marks 

Quotation marks are used to inclose a direct quotation but not 
to inclose an indirect quotation. 

*‘So far as man is concerned,” he said, “a thousand coyotes would as 
easily be put to flight as one.” 

gypsy girl will now play the piano,” said the announcer; ^Ter 
music is wild and sweet and mournful.” 

Notice the semicolon after announcer and the small h in her. 
The sentence quoted is— 

A gypsy girl will now play the piano; her music is wild and sweet and 
mournful. 

^‘Insects, weeds, and disease are the chief enemies of our crops,” says 
George C. Wood. “Insects alone destroy, on the average, about $1,000,- 
000,000 worth each year.” 

Notice the period after Wood and the capital in insects. The 
sentences quoted are— 

Insects, weeds, and disease are the chief enemies of our crops. Insects 
alone destroy, on the average, about $1,000,000,000 worth each year. 

Single marks surround a quotation within a quotation. 

Benjamin Franklin said, “It requires a good, strong man to say, T was 
mistaken, and am sorry.’ ” 

Notice that the quotation mark always follows the period or 
the comma. 

Other punctuation marks should be placed inside the quotation 
marks only if part of the quotation. 


PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALIZATION 


499 


He said, ^‘What do you want here?” 

Will you say to him, “Come at once”? 

When two or more paragraphs are quoted, place quotation 
marks at the beginning of each paragraph and at the end of the 
last paragraph. 

Quote the titles of short poems, essays, articles, and lectures. 

Have you read “To a Skylark”? 

The subject of the lecture was “The Future of Japan.” 

In print the names of books, plays, newspapers, and magazines 
are usually italicized. In a composition they may be enclosed in 
quotation marks or underscored. 

I have been studying The House of the Seven Gables this term. 

Notice that the title is not set off by commas. 

Parentheses 

Parentheses are used to inclose some side remark that does not 
affect the structure of the sentence. 

I told him (and who would not?) just what I thought. 

Brackets 

Brackets surround words inserted in an article or speech by a 
reporter or editor. 

Mr. Fess. The Chair rather gets me on that question. [Laughter] 
I did not rise — [Cries of “Vote!” “Vote!”] 

Apostrophe 

The apostrophe is used (1) to denote possession, (2) to take the 
place of an omitted letter, and (3) to form the plural of letters, 
figures, and signs. 

John^s brother makes neat b’s, Vs, M^s, and 6’s. 

He knows you’re right and he doesn’t care. 

The Possessive 

The possessive case of a noun always has an apostrophe, the 
possessive case of a personal pronoun never has an apostrophe: 
his, its, hers, theirs. 


500 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Possessive Singular 

To form the possessive singular of a noun, add ^s to the nomina¬ 
tive. The possessive sign is always at the end of the name. 

fox’s, James’s, enemy’s, lady’s, policeman’s, son-in-law’s, commander- 
in-chief’s. 

Exception. Words of two or more syllables ending in s or an s 
sound and not accented on the last syllable may take the apos¬ 
trophe only: conscience^ sake, goodness^ sake, Dickens^ novels. 
Some authorities consider Burns^ and Jones’ correct. 


Possessive Plural 

To form the possessive plural of a group of nouns, first write 
the plurals. Then add’s to the plurals that do not end in s and 
an apostrophe to the plurals that end in s. 


PLUKAL 


POSSESSIVE PLUKAL 


policemen 

Joneses 

mice 

enemies 

sons-in-law 


policemen’s 

Joneses’ 

mice’s 

enemies’ 

sons-in-law’s 


Joint Possession 

For joint possession only one apostrophe is needed: Align and 
Bacon’s New York office. If the possession is individual, the 
possessive sign is added to the name of each owner: 

Isabel’s, Mildred’s, and Josephine’s shares were as 1, 2, and 3. 

Practice 5 

Write the possessive singular, and the possessive plural if the 
word has a plural: 

Alley, ally, anybody, attorney-at-law, bathhouse, board of education. 
Burns, child, commander-in-chief, court-martial, deer, Dickens, donkey, 
editor-in-chief, father-in-law, fly, fox, goddess, it, Keats, king of England, 
lady, major general, man, man-of-war, manservant, mousetrap, nobody 


PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALIZATION 501 

else, Norman, officer, one, potato, secretary of state, sheep, somebody, 
Murphy, spoonful, trout, you, who, whoever, woman, woman-servant, 
postmaster general. 

Miscellaneous Examples 

Notice the punctuation of the following: 

1. MS. 

2. 5,647,982 

3. Augusts, 1914 — November 11, 1918 

4. Meet me at 8:15 P.M. 

5. That’s good advice, isn’t it? 

6. I have read many autobiographies, such as The Americanization of 
Edward Bok and The Making of an American. 

7. Resolved^ That the committee be empowered to have a bulletin 
board made. 

8. There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill. 

Practice 6 

Give the syntax of all clauses in the following sentences. Give 
the rule for every punctuation mark except a period at the end 
of a sentence. 

1. Shells fell in the city, and spht the darkness of the heavens in the 
early night hours. 

2. Don’t be satisfied with one; buy as many as you can. 

3. Open your purse and your mouth cautiously; and your stock of 
wealth afid wisdom shall, at least in repute, be great. 

4. When you see a crime committed or observe a person acting very 
suspiciously, it is your duty to notify the police. 

5. The soul of a man is a garden where, as he sows, so shall he reap. 
If ye would gather roses, do not sow rotten seeds. 

6. True eloquence consists in saying all that should be, not all that 
could be, said. 

7. Two old men, dragging a heavy bundle of household goods between 
them, abandoned it in the street and fled screaming. 

8. Her soul was noble—^in her own opinion. 

9. The word thatm.ajhQ used as follows: first, as a relative pronoun; 
second, as an adjective; third, as a subordinate conjunction. 

10. Our school, which stands on Fourth Avenue, is overcrowded. 

11. Yes, the speaker is to be Jeremiah Simpson, D.D. 

12. War is the law of violence; peace, the law of love. 

13. Looking down into Linden Park from the north, we see a lake. 


502 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


14. For several days we wandered through the forest primeval, and 
at last discovered the lake for which we had been searching. 

15. Just as Ruth came to the bat in the fourth inning—^look at that 
dare-devil airman. 

16. Julius Ccesar opens with the sentence, “Hence! home, you idle 
creatures, get you home.’^ 

17. Sentences are of three kinds: simple, complex, and compound. 

18. Therulemay be stated thus: A pronoun agrees with its antecedent 
in number and person. 

19. His stage whisper, “I^m suspicious,’^ his request that Schubert 
write a solo for the piccolo, and his ordering his son-in-law, Baron Schober, 
to bring home his baron’s salary every Saturday illustrate the type of 
humor in the play. 

20. “To Americans,” Conrad exclaims, “one appeals for the recogni¬ 
tion in the Polish nation of that patriotism, not of the flesh, but of the 
spirit, which has sustained my countrymen so well in the critical hours of 
their history.” 

Practice 7 

Give the syntax of all clauses in the following sentences. Punc¬ 
tuate the sentences and give a rule for each mark used. Insert 
needed apostrophes. Some sentences require no further punctua¬ 
tion. 

1. If a man has a job to which a large salary is attached he is said to 
be holding a lucrative position. 

2. In the second sentence I have repeated the word government in 
the third sentence I have used the phrase for my part in the fourth sentence 
I have repeated the word trip, 

3. My last point is his fearlessness when he goes into battle which 
proves that his nature is not that of a weakling. 

4. The statement which you made concerning the attitude of the 
government is absolutely wrong. 

5. He also uses good descriptive words throughout. 

6. He uses very few words which the average educated person doesn’t 
understand. 

7. He noted the men who tried hard but were naturally slow and 
awkward. 

8. What is becoming is honorable and what is honorable is becoming. 

9. Our chateau lies in the valley between two hills so to obtain a clear 
view of the horizon I hurried to the roof with a pair of field glasses. 

10. Just as we had seated ourselves comfortably in the auditorium 
Mr. Reynolds began a selection on the organ but soon the speaker ap¬ 
peared and gave us glimpses of Cairo and the Nile. 


PUNCTUATION AND CAPITALIZATION 


503 


11. Hope is the mainspring of efficiency complacency is its rust. 

12. Draw down the blind Jim whispered my mother they might come 
and watch outside. And now said she when I had done so we have to 
get the key off that and whos to touch it I should like to know and she 
gave a kind of sob as she said the words. 

13. When buying goods if you are satisfied with the price and quality 
make sure that you get full weight or measure. 

14. As charity covers a multitude of sins before God so does politeness 
before men. 

15. Men are born with two eyes but with one tongue in order that they 
should see twice as much as they say. 

16. A bowl of oatmeal eaten for breakfast will furnish the average man 
with all the heat and energy he will need. 

17. No one knew anything about him he had a good military record 
and was considered safe. 

18. They were the framers of the Constitution which has endured 
more than a century. 

19. For information concerning my intelligence industry and honesty 
you may write or telephone to Dr J M Jackson principal of Boys High 
School San Francisco California. 

20. The boy who won the peace medal lives in Philadelphia which is 
often called the City of Brotherly Love. 

21. Columbia University which is the largest educational institution 
in America has a school of journalism. 

22. He reported the meeting as follows I rise for information said a 
member I am very glad to hear it said another near by. 

' Pkactice 8 

Give the rule for every punctuation mark on pages 313, 314, 
and 348. 


Mastery Test—Punctuation 

Copy the following sentences, punctuate them, and insert 
needed apostrophes. Overpunctuation is just as bad as under¬ 
punctuation. Therefore if you either omit a needed mark or insert 
a mark that is not needed, the sentence is wrong. Do not divide 
one good sentence into two sentences. 

1. The members are England France Germany and Italy 

2. The task of framing the Constitution was performed by fifty-five 
of the best men that the states could send to the convention 


504 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


3. Cuba which was thought to be a part of Asia was discovered by 
Columbus 

4. Have you read about Marie Fish the young biologist who hatched 
the eel's eggs 

5. The boy who discussed the tariff quoted Herbert Hoover who is an 
authority on the subject 

6. Next year however we shall make another attempt said Fred 

7. If you and Janet can come to see us this summer for we are always 
delighted to have you 

8. He was respectful not servile to superiors and affable not improperly 
familiar with equals 

9. These are his exact words I rise Mr President to ask for information 

10. An adverb is a word used to modify a verb an adjective or another 
adverb as rapidly often completely and altogether 

11. War means murder and destruction peace life and plenty 

12. The food supply had to be organized and back of the various 
centers of organization stood the whole city glad to do whatever it was 
asked to do 

13. Flies mosquitoes black flies and punkies all made life miserable 
for us 

14. We find the heart of the address in this sentence Our purpose is 
to build in this nation a human society not an economic system 

15. By the way Tom did you ever get that dictionary you were saving 
your money for I asked 

16. Bernt Balchen picked in 1925 for the Antarctic expedition was a 
good flyer and an excellent mechanic as well a rare combination 

17. Strange to say I found good air pilots hard to get 

18. I was very glad to hear that you are coming to visit me soon 

19. Hundreds of thousands of miles of rail must yet be laid millions 
of miles of hard-surfaced roads will yet be needed 

20. Captains Ellis and Garey say A mans training and courage his clear 
eye and steady nerve his souls blood and iron constitute a better defense 
than steel and iron 

21. James Fitzsimmons the veteran turfman once said to me There 
are about $500000 worth of horses in my barn right now 

22. This is a trick he learned from William A Muldoon who used to 
be able to run as fast backward as the average man can run forward 

23. Man is a strange mixture of good and evil even the worst criminal 
has admirable qualities 

24. All his life he had known activity people something going on here 
there was nothing to do but to eat drink and loaf 

25. It made him dizzy looking from the one beautiful woman to the 
other but his glances finally came to rest on Kittys face 


CHAPTER XXIII 

SPELLING 

Hundked Per Cent Test—Spelling 

The ten words most frequently misspelled by high-school 
students are: 

too together committee separate 

its their therefore pleasant 

believe principal 

Can you spell them in a test and in your compositions? 

How to Learn to Spell 

A good business house does not send out misspelled letters. 
Rarely does one find a misspelled word in a book, a magazine, 
or a good newspaper. To learn to spell correctly every word 
you write, you need to master the following lists made up of 
common words that are commonly misspelled, to keep a list of 
the words you misspell, to break the habit of guessing at the 
spelling of words, and to form the habit of looking up a word in 
the dictionary unless you KNOW that your spelling is correct. 
The list of words you misspell in your writing you will find sur¬ 
prisingly short—perhaps not more than twenty-five words long, 
probably not more than a hundred. 

Practice 1 

Copy from your notebook and hand to your teacher a list of the words 
you have misspelled within a term. 

Possessives 

The possessive case of a noun always has an apostrophe; the 
possessive of a personal pronoun never has an apostrophe. 

505 


506 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


(The first three-fourths of this list of common but difficult words is a 
review of the six hundred words in English in Action, Volume One.) 


author’s 

one’s 

donkeys’ 

officers^ 

Burns’s 

son-in-law’s 

enemies’ 

policemen’s 

donkey’s 

woman’s 

foxes’ 

sons-in-law’s 

its 

year’s 

ladies’ 

theirs 

Jones’s 

Burnses’ 

men’s 

women’s 

lady’s 

children’s 

mice’s 


(Burns’ and Jones’ are accepted by some authorities.) 


Apostrophe for Omission 


Are-Vnot- 

= aren’t; you-\-are = 

= you’re; it-Vis 

= it’s; is -Vnot=isnH. 

aren’t 

don’t 

it’s 

won’t 

can’t (25) 

haven’t 

o’clock 

you’re 

doesn’t 

isn’t 




Capitals 


Always capitalize Latin, English, French, German, and Spanish. 
Do not capitalize algebra, geometry, history, music, biology, civics, 

typewriting, and drawing. 



algebra 

French 

Indian 

Jew 

Christian 

English 

history 

Italian 

Latin 



el 


angel 

bushel 

level 

nickel 

squirrel 


Three Past Tenses in aid 


laid 

paid 

said (50) 


Other ay 

verbs are regular. 



delayed 

played 

stayed 


forty 

lose 

0 

move 

ai 

prove 

Britain 

certain 

mountainous 

villain 

captain 

maintain 

porcelain 




ick 


mimicking 

picnicking 

picnicker 



dominoes 

echoes 

embargoes 

heroes 


SPELLING 
oes and os 

Plurals in oes 

jingoes negroes (75) 

mosquitoes noes 

mulattoes potatoes 


507 


tomatoes 

tornadoes 

torpedoes 


Other common words end in os. (A few may be written oes 
or os.) 

pianos solos sopranos 

ei and ie 

When the sound is ee, use ei after c and ie after any other letter. 

Exceptions. Weird, seize, neither, leisure, financier. (The weird financier 
seizes neither leisure nor sport.) 


For any other sound of the digraph use ei. 

Exceptions. Mischief, handkerchief, friend, view, sieve. (My friend 
went to see the view and for mischief carried her handkerchief in a sieve.) 


Practice 2 

1. Supply ei or ie in each word and give a reason for your 
choice: V fer—/, f—nd, f—rce, forf—t, fr — nd, gr — ve, misch—f, 
r — gn, si — gh, w — ght, y — Id, th — very, cone — t, v — n, gr — vous, 
front — r, retr — ve, sh — Id, shr — k, s — ve. 


achieve 

conceive 

height (100) 

relief 

belief 

counterfeit 

leisure 

relieve 

believe 

deceit 

mischievous 

seize 

besiege 

deceive 

niece 

siege 

cashier 

financier 

perceive 

veil 

ceiling 

foreigner 

piece (of paper) 

weigh 

chandelier 

freight 

receipt 

weird 

chief 

handkerchief 

receive 

wield 


Compounds 

Use the hyphen in compound numbers from twenty-one to 
ninety-nine and between the numerator and denominator of a 
fraction unless either part is written with a hyphen. Do not, 


508 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


however, hyphen one half in ‘‘He gave me one half and kept the 
other half.” 

nine-tenths two-thirds forty-four sixtieths two forty-eighths 

Hyphenate an adjective made up of two or more words if it 
precedes the noun modified: so-called hero, two-year-old girl, 
his happy-go-lucky friend. Do not join an adverb in ly to an 
adjective or participle: carefully built house. 

first-class (shop) near-by (house) two-family (house) 

five-quart (bucket) poverty-stricken (family) up-to-date (clothes) 

ill-advised (expedition) six-cylinder (automobile) (125) worth-while (book) 

No simple rules will tell when to use the hyphen, when to write 
the words sofid, and when to write them separate. Although 
the hyphen is often required, the tendency is to write words 
sofid without it. Hence a useful rule is, “When in doubt, write 
sofid.” A better rule, however, is, “When in doubt, consult the 
dictionary.” 

Write sofid these points of the compass: northeast, southeast, 
northwest, southwest. 

Write sofid the compound pronouns: oneself, himself, themselves, 
ourselves. 

Write sofid pronouns formed by combining any, every, some, 
and no with body, thing, and where: anybody, nobody, everybody, 
somebody, anything, anywhere. 

Write these words sofid: 


almost 

classroom 

homework 

something 

already 

copyright 

itself 

sometimes 

altogether 

everybody 

nevertheless 

southeast 

always 

everything 

nobody 

therefore 

another 

forehead 

northeast 

throughout 

baseball 

foremost 

oneself (150) 

together 

basketball 

foresee 

playwright 

upstairs 

bookkeeper 

heretofore 

shepherd 


Write the hyphen with self as a prefix: self-praise, self-evident, 
self-sacrifice. 

Prefixes when joined to root words do not, as a rule, require 
the hyphen: postgraduate, nonessential, coeducation, semiannual, 
rearrange, interscholastic. A hyphen is used when the prefix is 


SPELLING 


509 


attached to a proper noun or an unusual word: un-Christian, 
un-American, pro-British. 

ex-president self-respect un-American 

good-bye or good-by 

Write separate: 

aU right in spite of no one per cent 

Homonyms 

Practice 3 


If only one of a pair of homonyms is given, spell and define 
the other one. 


allowed (money for course (of ship) 

plane (surface) 

expenses) 

hoard (gold) 


principal (of school) 

ascent (of mountain) horde (from the East) 

principle (of liberty) 

berth (on boat) 

lead (pencil) 


rite (of baptism) 

borne (burdens) 

led (the horse) 

scene (of accident) 

capital (punishment) lessen (his duties) 

site (of building) 

Capitol (in Washington) mantle (of charity) 

stationary (engine) 

choir (in church) 

metal (window strip) 

stationery (f or writing) 

colonel (in army) (175) passed (an examination) 

straight (line) 

complement (of verb) past (year) 


strait (jacket) 

compliment (the singer) plain (people) 

too (many) (200) 

coarse (cloth) 




\ 

Miscellaneous 


acknowledge 

dessert 

lieutenant 

prairie 

advice 

disgusted 

loyalty 

profession 

advise 

distinct 

magazine 

professor 

alcohol 

endeavor 

Maine 

proudest 

antique 

engineer 

motorist 

recipe 

baptize 

enthusiasm (225) 

muscle 

restaurant 

bicycle 

evidence 

Odyssey 

Roosevelt 

bouquet 

exhausted 

opportunity 

sacrifice 

breathe 

expense 

orchestra 

Santa Claus 

campaign 

extinguished 

originate 

scheme 

career 

genius 

pageant 

science 

character 

glisten 

pamphlet 

secrecy 

column 

gymnasium 

patriotism (250) sense 

community 

handsome 

permanent 

stretched 

confident 

intention 

Philippine 

thousand 

council 

khaki 

physical 

vehicle 

counsel 

knowledge 

pigeon 

written 

critical 

license 

possibility 

yacht 

desert 





510 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Final y 

Y preceded by a consonant becomes i before a suffix: try^ tries, 
tried; lady, ladies. 

Exceptions occur— 

1. Before ing and ish to avoid double i: flying, babyish. 

2. After t: piteous, plenteous. 

3. In proper names: Henrys, Kellys. 

4. In derivatives of adjectives of one syllable: shyness, drys, stand-bys, 
dryly. (Notice, however, the forms drier, driest.) 

Practice 4 

1. Write the plural of these words: country, city, copy, berry, 
century, library, courtesy, company, dummy, lily. 

2. When the singular ends in y preceded by a vowel, the plural 
is formed by adding s in the usual way. Write the plural of these 
nouns: donkey, attorney, monkey, pulley, valley, turkey, trolley, 
medley, money, kidney. 

3. Change each adjective to a noun by adding ness: busy, 
worldly, cozy, dry, shy, sly, heavy, wordy, friendly, dreary. 

4. Write the third person singular of the present indicative 
and of the past indicative of each of these verbs {cry, he cries, 
he cried): try, fly, apply, defy, fry, marry, bury, satisfy, supply, 
deny. 


accompanied 

cries 

modifies 

satisfying 

alleys (275) 

ffies 

modifying 

slyly 

allies 

happiness 

monkeys 

spies (300) 

applies 

hurrying 

Murphys 

studying 

batteries 

implies 

necessarily 

supplies 

burglaries 

journeys 

prophecies 

tries 

business 

kindliness 

readily 

turkeys 

chimneys 

modifier 

replies 



Final e 


Silent e is usually kept before a suffix beginning with a con¬ 
sonant, and dropped before a suffix beginning with a vowel. 

dine+ing = dining (Suffix begins with a vowel.) 
come+ing = coming (Suffix begins with a vowel.) 
care-]rful=careful (Suffix begins with a consonant.) 


SPELLING 


511 


use-\-ful=useful (Suffix begins with a consonant.) 

(This rule applies to over two thousand words ) 

Exceptions — 

1. Words ending in ce and ge retain the e before able and ous to avoid 
the harsh sounds of c and g: peaceable, courageous. 

2. Words ending in ie drop the e and change i to y before ing to avoid 
two successive i’s: dying, lying. 

3. Truly, duly, awful, argument, judgment, acknowledgment, wholly, 
ninth, mileage, dyeing, singemg, hoeing, shoeing, toeing, acreage, canoeing, 
eyeing. 

Practice 5 

1. Write the present participle of these verbs: have, argue, use, 
hope, shine, write, receive, love, take, owe, eye, hoe, singe, sing, dye, 
die, oblige, lose, lie, vie. 

2. Form adjectives by adding ful to these nouns: care, grace, 
tune, awe, shame, revenge, use. 

3. Write adjectives ending in able derived from these words: 
love, tame, sale, use, live, forgive, believe, excuse, deplore, peace. 


accurately 

entirely 

losing 

scarcely 

advantageous 

excitement 

lovable 

severely (350) 

amusement 

extremely 

loveliness 

shining 

arguing 

argument 

finely 

lying 

sincerely 

firing 

merely 

surely 

arrangement 

forcibly (325) 

movable 

taking 

canoeing 

fortunately 

moving 

tasting 

careful 

having 

nineteen 

truly 

coming 

hoping 

ninety 

tying 

completely 

imaginary 

ninth 

using 

desirable 

immediately 

noticeable 

valuable 

dining 

immensely 

peaceable 

wherever 

dramatizing 

likely 

pursuing 

wholly 

dyeing 

liking 

safety 

writmg 

dying 

loneliness 




Doubling Final Consonants 

A monosyllable or a word accented on the last syllable, if it 
ends in one consonant preceded by one vowel, doubles the final 
consonant before a vowel suffix. (This rule applies to over three 
thousand words.) 

Exceptions. Chagrined, transferable, inferable, gaseous, and words, like 


512 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


preference from prefer' and reference from refer', in which the accent is 
shifted to the first syllable. 

Notice that this rule applies only if— 

1. The primary word ends in one consonant; 

2. The final consonant is preceded by one vowel; and 

3. The primary word is a monosyllable or has the accent on the 
last syllable. 


Practice 6 

Form the present participle and the past tense of the twenty words 
beginning with defer, and explain in each case why the rule applies or 
does not apply: 

Models 

1. admit, admitting, admitted 

The rule applies, because admit ends in one consonant t pre¬ 
ceded by one vowel i, and is accented on the last syllable. 

2. plane, planing, planed 

The rule does not apply, because plane ends in a vowel. 

3. plan, planning, planned 

The rule appfies, because plan ends in one consonant n, pre¬ 
ceded by one vowel a, and is a monosyllable. 

4. help, helping, helped 

The rule does not apply, because help ends in two consonants. 

5. need, needing, needed 

The rule does not apply, because the single final consonant in 
need is preceded by two vowels. 

6. enter, entering, entered 

The rule does not apply, because the accent in enter is not on 
the last syllable. 

defer, differ, limit, abhor, labor, open, trace, excel, regret, admit, dine, 
din, hope, hop, shine, shin, fit, pain, daub, worship. 


SPELLING 


513 


Be ready to spell the following words and to explain in each 
case why the rule does or does not apply: 


beginning 

dropped 

omitted 

referred 

benefited 

equipped 

omitting 

referring 

biggest 

excellent 

patrolling 

running 

committed 

interfering 

preferable 

stopped 

committee 

occurred (375) 

preferred 

stopping 

committing 

occurrence 

putting 

transferred 

compelled 

offered 

reference 

warring 

controlled 





Single Letters 


amount 

banana 

George Eliot (400) imitate 

apartment 

bus 

excel 

pastime 

apology 

cancel 

gases 

until 

around 

control 

imagine 

welfare 


Double Letters 


address 

compass 

necessity 

speeches 

ammunition 

embarrassing 

paddle 

syllable (425) 

annual 

employees 

parallel 

tariff 

balloon 

exaggerate 

possess 

tennis 

comma 

mattress 

possessive 

upper 

commm^ity 





Single s Pronounced zh 


decision 

occasion 




ss Pronounced sh 


commission 

discussion 

omission 

permission 


eed and ed 


There are three eed verbs. 

exceed succeed 

Other words have ed. 

precede procedure 

precedent 


proceed 


recede 


ly 


Cool-\-ly = coolly; total+ly = totally. 


514 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Pkactice 7 


Write each of these words with the suffix ly added: actual, 
continual, casual, oral, special, partial, final, usual, accidental, 
poetical. 


adverbially 

finally 

occasionally 

publicly 

coolly 

formally (450) originally 

really 

cordially 

formerly 

particularly 

respectfully 

equally 

generally 

physically 

thoroughly 

especially 

hurriedly 

practically 

undoubtedly 

evidently 

ideally 

principally 

usually 



ful 


No adjective ends in full. 



awful 

mournful 

successful 

wonderful 

handful 

powerful 

useful 




ous 


a before ous is pronounced sh. 


delicious 

barbarous 

ingenious 

poisonous 

ferocious (475) 

cautious 

jealous 

religious 

precious 

contagious 

monstrous 

unanimous 

suspicious 

enormous 

mysterious 

victorious 



dis 


Dis-\-appear= 

disappear; 

dis+appoint = disappoint; dis + satis- 

fied — dissatisfied; dis-]-similarity = dissimilarity. 


disagreeable 

disappoint 

dissatisfied 

dissimilarity 

disappear 

disapproval 



recollect 

recommend 

re 




ad 


The consonant of the prefix is often changed but never lost. 

Ad-{-hreviate = 

abbreviate; ad-{-commodate = accommodate. 

abbreviation 

accumulate 

acquaintance 

appearance 

accommodate 

accuracy 

acquire 

approaching 

accomplished (500) 

accuse 

aggravate 

assistance 

account 

accustom 

apparent 

association 


SPELLING 


515 


illegal 


agreeable 

amendment 

drunkenness 


in 

illiterate innocent 

cum 

collection colloquial 

Other Prefixes and Suffixes 

effective meant opponent 

interrupted missent unnecessary 

irrigation (525) misspell 


Misspelling Due to Mispronunciation 

If you pronounce these words completely and distinctly, you 
will find them easy to spell. 


across 

aeroplane 

affect 

effect 

arctic 

artillery 

athletics 

chocolate 

competitive 

democracy 

dilapidated 


attendant (575) 

calendar 

comparatively 

consonant 

defendants 

descendant 

fundamental 

grammar 


antecedent 

benefactor 

beneficial 

benefit 

cemetery 

coherence 

competent 


disastrous 

disease 

enthusiastically 

except 

February 

government 

hindrance 

interested 

lightning (550) 

literary 

machinery 

a 

guarantee 

indispensable 

inevitable 

Macaulay 

Macbeth 

metaphor 

militarism 

obstacle 

e 

delegate 

dependent 

describe 

description 

despair 

despised 

destruction 


mahogany 

majestically 

Massachusetts 

millinery 

organization 

participial 

participle 

partridge 

perform 

perhaps 

perspiration 


pleasant 

preparation 

prevalent 

rehearsal 

relative 

salad 

salaries 


elementary 

existence 

independence 

mathematics 

persistence 

persuade 


prejudice 

probably 

reality 

recognize 

remembrance 

Saturday 

strengthen 

surprising 

tournament 

tragedy 

Wordsworth 


separate 

temperance • 

Thackeray (600) 

treachery 

vengeance 

village 

wasted 


quiet (625) 

repetition 

skeleton 

superintendent 

vegetable 

vegetation 


516 

ENGLISH IN ACTION 


anticipate 

dirigible 

z 

infinitive (650) 

privilege 

citizen 

discipline 

intelligent 

prominent 

civilized 

dissipation 

intelligible 

sensible 

comparison 

divide 

inquiry 

sensitive 

contemptible 

divine 

irresistible 

similar 

criticism 

eligible 

medicine 

testimony 

criticized 

feminine 

minimum 

transitive 

deficit 

incredible 

nominative 

vicinity 

definitely 

individual 

permissible 

visible 

delicate 


n 


guardian 

minute 

murmur 

pursuit 

manufacture 






ou 


courtesy 

fourteen 

source (675) 


appreciate 

carriage 

ia 

miniature 

physician 

artificial 

familiar 

parliament 

politician 

brilliant 

financial 

peculiarity 

pronunciation 

convenient 

efficiency 

ie 

fiery 

sufficient 

deficient 

experience 

OT 


compulsory 

governor 

successor 

temporary (700) 

conqueror 

laboratory 

tailor 


debater 

deserter 

er 

laborer 



Miscellaneous 


affirmative 

barbarism 

conspicuous 

equivalent 

alumnae 

buoyant 

cooperation 

erroneous 

alumni 

bureaus 

correspondence 

European 

amateur 

cafeteria 

cretonne 

exhibition 

analyze 

candidate 

curriculum 

exquisite 

anniversary 

chaperon 

customary 

extemporaneous 

apparatus 

chauffeur 

desolate 

extraordinary 

appetite 

Chautauqua 

desperate 

facilitate (750) 

ascertain 

condemned (725) 

development 

fascinate 

assassination 

Connecticut 

difference 

harmonize 

attorneys 

conscience 

ecstasy 

hypnotize 

auxiliary 

conscientious 

emphasize 

hypocrisy 

bankruptcy 

conscious 

equipment 

inconvenience 



SPELLING 


517 


influential 

interrogative 

kerosene 

kindergarten 

magnificent 

maneuver 

manual 

massacre 

Mediterranean 

millionaire 

miscellaneous 

monotonous 


municipal 

organized 

paradise 

paraphernalia 

philosopher 

politics 

predominant 

prepositional (775) 

realize 

remarkable 

rhetoric 

rheumatism 


rhythm 
schedule 
secretary 
Shakespeare or 
Shakspere 
shrouded 
simultaneous 
socialism 
solemn 
sovereign 
statistics 


substitute 

successive 

sympathize 

synonym 

tendency 

tyranny 

ventilated 

vocabulary 

volume 

volunteer 

warrant (800) 


Pkactice 8 

DICTATION EXERCISE 


Study the spelling, capitalization, and punctuation of these 
sentences in preparation for writing them at your teacher’s 
dictation: 

1. While Captain Jones’s niece was arguing about the changeable 
heat in her apartment, her excitable maid, who was dissatisfied with 
various arrangements in the kitchen, disappeared with the family silver. 

2. Today the necessity for a successful solution of the following 
questions is occupying the attention of the financiers, politicians, and 
statesmen: the cutting down of government appropriations, legislation 
for the welfare of women in industry, and the establishment of coopera¬ 
tion between the laborer and the capitalist. 

3. Massachusetts is a particularly attractive state, because it possesses 
natural loveliness, historic association, and good business opportunities. 
In February the temperature occasionally drops below zero, though it is 
not so cold there as in Maine; but in the autumn the weather is usually 
pleasant. 

4. The dangers of canoeing are often exaggerated. Unless one is 
naturally careless, he will find a canoe a most manageable and serviceable 
craft. It’s not what one could choose for long journeys, perhaps, but it is 
excellent for fun in home waters. 

5. The victim, who had been led hurriedly through alleys, dealt his 
mysterious opponent a totally unexpected blow. To disappear after his 
successful attack was the work of a moment. 

6. Pupils who do not master their rules are likely to misspell such 
words as mischief, siege, sieve, and weird. Such careless pupils will also 
probably miss words like Macaulay and Macbeth. 

7. To succeed in business nowadays, the following qualifications are a 


518 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


necessity: good judgment, self-respect, decision of character, courtesy, 
and consideration for others. 

8. Last Wednesday, Professor Horn, while reading a letter, showed his 
disapproval of the illegible penmanship, the colloquial expressions, the 
postscript, and the general appearance. He was naturally dissatisfied 
with every abbreviation found in the body of the letter. 

9. “It’s the ninth time you’ve been late to the classroom,” said the 
teacher, upon receipt of the pink slip. “You have forfeited your right to 
any leisure,” she continued fiercely, “and I shall give you forty times your 
usual homework in each of the following subjects: algebra, history, Latin, 
English, and French.” 

10. A harassed peddler, peeling potatoes and cutting up a few pieces of 
rhubarb, was embarrassed when an old shepherd, shooing mosquitoes, 
slyly perceived his preparation for dining. 


CHAPTER XXIV 

THE RIGHT WORD 

Why Increase One’s Word Store? 

A store of words gives one power to think, to observe and re¬ 
member, to express ideas and feelings, to understand oral instruc¬ 
tions, and to get thought from the printed page. Dr. Frank 
Crane says, ‘We think in words when we think clearly. For 
when our thoughts cannot be expressed, they are quite vague and 
influence us not much.” About observation and memory Walter 
Lippman says, “Experience which cannot be described and com¬ 
municated in words cannot long be vividly remembered, for words, 
more than any other medium, prolong experience in consciousness. 
At last, because experience can’t be described and can’t be re¬ 
membered, it ceases to be noticed.” 

Ability to read may at times keep one out of the police court 
or save his life. An Associated Press Dispatch tells of a tourist 
in Oregon who quaffed heartily from a roadside spring over which 
was a large sign, “This water is contaminated.” When a highway 
engineer, driving by, stopped to call the tourist’s attention to the 
sign, he was met by the question, “What kind of mineral water is 
this? I never heard of it before.” 

Words are not only useful but also beautiful. Lafcadio Hearn 
tells us that words have “colors, forms, and characters; they have 
moods, humors, eccentricities; they have tints, tones, personali¬ 
ties.” Anna Hempstead Branch says, 

God wove a web of loveliness 
Of clouds and stars and birds, 

But made not anything at all 
So beautiful as words. 

Size of Vocabulary 

The English language includes approximately 600,000 words. 
About half are obsolete or technical. Three statisticians who 

519 


520 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


computed Shakespeare’s vocabulary arrived at the figures 15,000, 
21,000, and 24,000. Two computations of Milton’s vocabulary 
placed it at 10,000 and 13,000 words. The writing vocabulary 
of the average adult is 3500 words; of the exceptional man or 
woman, 6000; of the average eighth-grade pupil, 2100. Terman 
gives the following as standard reading vocabularies: 12 years, 
7200 words; 14 years, 9000; average adult, 11,700; superior 
adult, 13,500. 

Vocabulary Test—Magazine 


The following forty words occur on page 467, Volume XXXVII, 
of the WorWs Work, Define the words you know. 


nationalism 

radical 

flexible 

rigid 

centralized 

suppleness 

analysis 

entities 

protracted 

reconstruction 


culminate 

fundamental 

impotence 

fratricidal 

reversion 

imprecedented 

self-sufficiency 

transition 

temporary 

cleavage 


tranquil 

politico-social 

particularisms 

culture 

aspiration 

dissolution 

mutually 

rancor 

keystone 

patrimony 


amassed 

supemational 

imperial 

imiversal 

ultimate 

supremacy 

bureaucracy 

indispensable 

self-consciousness 

inchoate 


Vocabulary Test—Novel 

In each sentence look at the italicized word. Then find in the 
next line a word or expression which means the same or almost the 
same as the italicized word. On a sheet of paper write this word 
or expression and the number of the sentence. (All the words are 
taken from Edna Ferber’s So Big, which won the Pulitzer prize 
as the best novel of its year. Your score will indicate how well 
you can understand a novel written for grown-ups.) 

1. It is written in a pungent style. 

glittering, uneven, high-sounding, stinging, puny 

2. He presented the salient facts. 

thought-provoking, conspicuous, proved, desired, disputed 

3. They ate succulent sea-viands. 

appetizing, nourishing, healthful, seasonable, juicy 

4. On the wall were stark crayons of ancients. 

old-fashioned, rigid, cheap, artistic, carefully drawn 


THE RIGHT WORD 


521 


5. The nocturnal noises frightened him. 

uncanny, unexplainable, night, street, morning 

6. This influenced her habit of matutinal bathing. 

morning, salt-water, afternoon, moonlight, cold-water 

7. She beheld a gnome in the doorway. 

giant, ruffian, dwarf, ghost, shadow 

8. He shook his grizzled head. 

bald, tousled, shaggy, gray, massive 

9. They had sprung from phlegmatic people. 

thrifty, care-free, docile, sluggish, lively 

10. She was a volatile person. 

uncouth, romantic, lively, stupid, stolid 

11. The trip was born of a wave of nostalgia for the dirt and crowds of 
Chicago. 

disgust, homesickness, nausea, hatred, restlessness 

12. farinaceous fruit has a fascination for children, 
mealy, luscious, juicy, ripe, sour 

13. She flouted him in sight of the congregation. 

greeted, flaunted, mocked, welcomed, criticized 

14. A malevolent force seemed to draw insects to his fields. 

natural, spiteful, supernatural, weird, unseen 

15. She scorned the ubiquitous pork. 

salt, omnipresent, fatty, undercooked, nutritious 

16. She had tWo juicy pippins. 

pears, peaches, oranges, apples, plums 

17. He spoke in a falsetto voice. 

low-pitched, harsh, drawling, resonant, artificial 

18. Broad backs shut off ingress. 

view, air, communication, entrance, exit 

19. She was a huxom girl. 

talkative, romantic, plump, graceful, fun-loving 

20. She teetered perilously on the box. 

seesawed, danced, jumped, stepped, sat 

21. I saw a complaisant Turkish slave girl. 

pleasing, obliging, attractive, leisure-loving, dark-complexioned 

22. He saw the young blades of the village. 

athletes, business men, students, reckless fellows, loafers 

23. Dirk returned the auctioneer’s smirk.^ 

witticism, abuse, gesture, dislike, simper 

24. He spoke with reverence. 

excessive, limited, deep, boundless, sincere 

25. His fair head made a yivid foil. 

picture, contrast, foreground, point, background 


522 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


26. It looked infinitesimal in his paw. 

grotesque, uncomfortable, calm, unmeasurably small, frightened 

27. She laughed hysterically. 

wildly, joyously, girlishly, convulsively, unrestrainedly 

28. He bit ruminantly into the cake. 

thoughtlessly, meditatively, expectantly, gayly, laughingly 

29. Roelf broke away from the uncouth speech of the countryside. 

boorish, cultured, ungrammatical, incoherent, vague 

30. The boy worshipped her inarticulately. 

at a distance, reverently, whole-heartedly, devoutly, dumbly 

31. The cadence of a spoken line brought a look to his face. 

pictures, sound, rhythm, beautiful diction, emotion 

32. They dropped to sleep immediately, surfeited. 

happy, overfed, sick at heart, depressed, tired of life 

33. The figures marched tractably under her pencil. 

docilely, joyfully, artistically, swiftly, thoughtfully 

34. The air came from the teeming prairie. 

broad, wagon-covered, inspiring, prolific, level 

35. She was drawn inexorably into something terrible. 

relentlessly, gradually, powerfully, speedily, hesitatingly 

36. She was voluble. 

modest, talented, glib, elated, gay 

37. She elucidated her philosophy of life. 

proved, made clear, believed, made interesting, misrepresented 

38. It was a community of squat houses. 

modern, ivy-covered, dumpy, dilapidated, unpainted 

39. She tried with futile fingers to prevent the step. 

ghostly, skillful, ineffectual, untrained, deft 

40. The schoolhouse stove was a fractious toy. 

fascinating, unruly, oversize, useful, breakable 

41. He was morose. 

slow, conservative, ill-humored, tired, eccentric 

42. She beat her knee with an impotent fist. 

powerless, powerful, brutal, firm, tense 

43. It was hot with the humid heat of the district. 

unbearable, withering, intense, moist, suffocating 

44. Pervus was contrite. 

abject, repentant, contrary, courteous, conspicuous 

45. In his plight she found a grisly satisfaction. 

unbelievable, untimely, gra3dsh, ghastly, peculiar 

46. He had developed an aquiline nose. 

Roman, stubby, curving, sharp, button 

47. Pervus was impecunious. 

indolent, poor, stingy, peculiar, improvident 


523 


THE RIGHT WORD 

48. She dyed it a sedate brown. 

chocolate, dirty, stylish, staid, sensible 

49. She had sunk into apathy years before. 

despair, oblivion, indifference, poverty, stupidity 

50. She shook his impassive shoulders. 

massive, insensible, broad, powerful, inefficient 

51. He was a dour dominie. 

efficient, haughty, cultured, trustworthy, inflexible 

52. Bewilderment shadowed her placid face. 

ghastly, wan, oval, pleasant, calm 

53. She eyed the team with the avid gossip’s gaze. 

curious, sly, troublesome, eager, malicious 

54. They ate coleslaw. 

bean salad, onions, cabbage salad, cauliflower, celery salad 

55. She was a dowdy farm woman. 

prosperous, untidy, unhappy, domineering, docile 

56. She backed her team dexterously. 

quickly, carelessly, cautiously, to the right, skillfully 

57. He added his raucous voice to the din. 

nasal, musical, harsh, breathy, monotonous 

58. They heard the din of an inchoate city. 

foreign, distant, cosmopolitan, incomplete, noisy 

59. Down the street came swarthy men. 

serious,\dark-hued, sweaty, silent, stately 

60. They had stolid faces. 

red, sunburned, sullen, pallid, dull 

61. It was a fine face with somber eyes. 

melancholy, soulful, wistful, searching, expressionless 

62. In the rear was a conservatory. 

parlor, greenhouse, garden, pergola, porch 

63. She drove a spanking team. 

well-groomed, well-matched, lively, treacherous, slow 

64. She was a fastidious woman. 

overnice, fashionable, furious, resourceful, efficient 

65. He surveyed the jaded horses. 

tired, young, vivacious, gray, farm 

66. He had some kind of plan in mind, but it was still nebulous, 

cultivated, negative, fleeting, desirable, hazy 

67. He glowered at modern machinery. 

was amazed, looked, scowled, wondered, railed 

68. The worm streaked the ground with sinuous trace. 

graceful, revolting, beautiful, terrible, winding 

69. They said Political Economy sonorously. 

monotonously, resonantly, gruffly, hoarsely, forcefully 


524 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


70. Her notes were copious. 

perfect, accurate, abundant, careless, concise 

71. She told him this ingenuously. 

frankly, quietly, confidentially, frequently, timidly 

72. She stood a moment irresolutely. 

thoughtlessly, waveringly, silently, longingly, bravely 

73. They were desiccated women. 

timid, dried-up, desperate, domestic, domineering 

74. She had a caustic wit. 

sprightly, harmful, cutting, insulting, dangerous 

75. The other girls looked blowzy. 

well-groomed, frightened, dejected, ruddy-faced, beautiful 

76. “Baroque” describes the Beachside Hotel. 

grotesque, ornate, majestic, mammoth, Gothic 

77. There were tepees where the fort now is. 

swamps, tea rooms, wigwams, mounds, shacks. 

78. He is reticent. 

gay, graceful, uncommunicative, restless, respected 

79. The estate has bosky paths. 

bushy, swampy, winding, rocky, steep 

80. He was seated in the parquet. 

parlor, orchestra, small park, gallery, foyer 

81. He folded them deftly. 

seriously, angrily, dexterously, clumsily, silently 

82. He passed the smug suburban neatness of Wilmette. 

pleasant, quiet, attractive, prim, pretentious 

83. She wore diaphanous stuff. 

gaudy, heavy, imported, shoddy, transparent 

84. Dirk was loquacious. 

silent, grim, light-hearted, liberty-loving, talkative 

85. Here was a spotless brougham. 

limousine, closed carriage, open carriage, sedan, cart 

86. Its cushions were immaculate. 

spotless, velvety, soft, removable, cumbersome 

87. They met furtively. 

frequently, by appointment, openly, by accident, stealthily 

88. It made you feel arid. 

queer, irritated, eager, dry, unresponsive 

89. The words fell nonchalantly from their lips. 

forcefully, indifferently, quickly, fluently, irresponsibly 

90. The mail lay on a little console. 

desk, chair, shelf, window, table 

91. Dante’s saturnine features sneered down on you. 

gloomy, Satanic, bold, drawn, ghastly 


THE RIGHT WORD 


525 


92. He ate exotic food for dinner. 

tainted, uncooked, foreign, indigestible, unpalatable 

93. Her life was prolific. 

full, pleasant, fruitful, dull, uneventful 

94. There was about her a paradoxical wholesomeness 

self-confident, attractive, childish, self-contradictory, whole¬ 
hearted 

95. His style is laconic. 

flamboyant, concise, elevated, commonplace, precise 

96. She waved away carping criticism. 

helpful, faultfinding, constructive, unsolicited, petty 

97. The Negro population stretched its great limbs ominously. 

lazily, menacingly, carelessly, powerfully, boastfully 

98. All were uninhibited. 

fearless, unambitious, unrestrained, unnerved, unconcerned 

99. They interlarded their remarks with “My deah.’’ 

prefaced, concluded, mixed, emphasized, weakened 

100. The other received this with incredulity. 

surprise, delight, unbelief, reluctance, eagerness 


Vocabulary Test—^Newspaper 


For a week a class in the Girls^ Commercial High School of 
Brooklyn listed the interesting words they found in the New 
York Times and the New York World. Here are twenty-five of 
the words. Define and use in a sentence every word you know. 


archaeologist 

bureaucracy 

cupidity 

chameleon 

category 

defunct 


elucidation 

epitome 

fagade 

larceny 

primate 


plenipotentiary 

predatory 

panacea 

picaresque 

psychopathic 


subpoena 

sartorial 

stabilize 

sabotage 

tangent 


Vocabulary Notebook 


Professor Palmer says, ^‘Let any one who wants to see himself 
grow resolve to adopt two new words each week.’^ One of the 
best methods of increasing your vocabulary is by mastering the 
words you meet in your reading. Your notebook should have a 
part of the sentence in which the author uses the word, the def¬ 
inition of the word, and its derivation, if this means anything 


to you: 

He was accompanied by a superannuated pointer—(swper annus) 
disqualified by age 



526 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


By learning both the meaning and the use of a word and then 
using it in speech and writing, you add it to your reading, writing, 
and speaking vocabulary. Professor Palmer says on this point, 
^‘I know that when we use a word for the first time, we are startled 
as if a firecracker went off in our neighborhood. We look about 
hastily to see if any one has noticed. But finding that no one has, 
we may be emboldened. A word used three times slips off the 
tongue with entire naturalness. Then it is ours forever, and with 
it some phase of life which had been lacking hitherto.’’ 

The Dictionary 

The dictionary habit is a firm foundation for steady improve¬ 
ment in English both in school and out of school. In the use of 
the dictionary you will save time by going slow. 

Suppose that for the first time you meet in your reading either 
caprice or capricious. The definition of caprice in Webster’s New 
International Dictionary is an abrupt change in feeling^ opinion, 
or action, proceeding from whim or fancy. If after reading this 
definition you toss the dictionary aside, you will doubtless 
promptly forget caprice. Instead, notice the pronunciation, 
synonyms, and derivation. Bead, under derivation, perhaps 
originally a fantastical goat leap, from Latin caper; see in imagi¬ 
nation an Alpine goat leaping from crag to crag for no particular 
reason; and you can’t forget the word caprice. 

Notice that dilapidated is derived from dis (apart) and lapis 
(stone), and picture a stone house tumbled to the ground. 

Observe that trivial comes from trivium (a place where three 
roads meet), and then imagine the gossipers talking idly at the 
street corner. 

How does it happen that fiasco, which means in Italian bottle, 
commonly means in English complete failure? The explanation 
is curious. In Venice, noted for its beautiful glass, the workman 
who spoiled a fine piece made a bottle out of it. Thus fiasco came 
to mean failure. 

When you look up tribulation, you will find tribulum (a thrashing 


THE RIGHT WORD 527 

sledge). Picture a person in tribulation as one who is thrashed 
hke grain. 

Picture 'pioneers as soldiers who cleared the way for the army by 
cutting down trees and building roads and bridges. 

Turn to pocket handkerchiefs and notice that kerchief from the 
French couvrir chef means head covering, that hand was added to 
show that this head covering was carried in the hand, that pocket 
makes clear that it is placed in the pocket, and that now this ker¬ 
chief carried in the hand or in the pocket isn’t a head covering at all. 

Every election some regular party man calls an independent 
voter a mugwump. The word is a corruption of mugquomp, which 
in the language of the Algonquin Indians means chief or great man. 
It was first applied to an independent voter in 1884 when Carl 
Schurz and others bolted the Republican ticket headed by James 
G. Blaine. 

Other Books about Words 

Greenough and Kittredge’s Words and Their Wa'ys in English, 
McKnight’s English Words and Their Background, and Trench’s 
On the Study of Words are entertaining and scholarly books on 
words. Fernald\ English Synonyms, Antonyms, and Prepositions, 
Allen’s Synonyms and Antonyms, Soule’s Dictionary of English 
Synonyms, Crabb’s English Synonyms, Krapp’s A Comprehensive 
Guide to Good English, Fowler’s Modern English Usage, and Hall’s 
English Usage are valuable, reference books. When you are 
writing a letter or theme, you need a dictionary— The Winston 
Simplified Dictionary, Advanced Edition, Webster’s Secondary 
School Dictionary, The High School Standard Dictionary, or The 
Concise Oxford Dictionary, for example—and also Roget’s The¬ 
saurus of English Words and Phrases, a storehouse of words and 
phrases so arranged that you can quickly find the word you are 
looking for or need. 

Practice 1 

What of interest is there in the history of these words? Does the 
history help you to understand the word or to remember it? How? 

assail Philadelphia meander pedagogue 

insult composition pagan dactyl 


528 

ENGLISH 

IN ACTION 


white feather 

nasturtium 

saturnine 

curfew 

posthaste 

barbarian 

martial 

ostracize 

tantalize 

alphabet 

guillotine 

candidate 

jovial 

biscuit 

gerrymander 

disastrous 

atlas 

trite 

jeremiad 

hippopotamus 

phaeton 

sardonic 

boycott 

babble 

cereal 

parasite 

l5mch 

Machiavellian 


Changes in Meaning 

Words are much like people. They degenerate when they have 
bad associates. Soon^ hy and hy, 'presently, and directly originally 
meant instantly but have changed because people have always 
liked to put off. Villain meant originally a farm laborer. Soon 
it meant one 'who is lacking in the courtesy of a gentleman, hence 
a low fellow. Another short step gave the present meaning and 
use of the word to characterize any one thoroughly dishonest and 
dishonorable. A few words have risen in the social scale. Marshal 
meant originally horse-boy but now in France means the highest 
military officer. 

Practice 2 

how five of the following have changed in meaning: 

sly erring worthy 

crafty rash nice 

counterfeit respectable naughty 

vice extravagant 

Practice 3 

What are five new English words recently added to the language? 
What do they mean? What do they indicate about modern fife? 


Find out 

knave 

fellow 

cheater 

cunning 


Effective Words 

Effective words are appropriate for the topic discussed and for 
the audience. As a rule, direct, simple, brief, vigorous, lucid 
wording is more effective than a lofty, far-fetched, roundabout 
expression of ideas. Homely words like stark, bleak, sheer, roar. 


THE RIGHT WORD 


529 


pngr, wheedle, boor, dolt, haggle, task, hobnob, job, glum, and hodge¬ 
podge are more expressive than lengthy and pretentious ones. 


Pkactice 4 


In each group do you consider a or 6 more effective? Why? 


1 


a. 

b. 


The play has not wit enough to keep it sweet.— Johnson 
The play has not vitality enough to preserve it from putrefaction. 

—Johnson 


2 


a. And sitting on the grass partook 

The fragrant beverage drawn from China’s herb.— ^Wordsworth 

b. And sitting on the grass had tea.— Tennyson 


3 

a. I—ah—^regret the malaise of transportation which has detained 
me.—J ames 

b. I regret that my cab was slow. 

4 

a. He died poor. 

b. He expired in indigent circumstances. 

Exact, precise, concrete, specific words are more effective than 
vague, general, abstract ones. Hence, as a rule, it is wise to avoid 
such vaguely used adjectives as fine, horrid, fierce, awful, nice, 
grand, lovely, cute, gorgeous, splendid, stunning, elegant 

Specific, the opposite of general, means definite or particular. 
Concrete, the opposite of abstract, means perceptible by the senses 
and refers to things as opposed to qualities, states, or actions. 
Self-reliance, honesty, and manliness are specific but not concrete. 
Clothing, bird, animal, and machine are concrete but not specific. 
Slate-colored, broad-brimmed straw hat with a feather of brickish red; 
male American robin with his black head and bright reddish brown 
breast; my tame but timid gray squirrel with his brownish coat and 
broad, bushy tail; a dilapidated, ten-year-old, open, T-model Ford 
are specific and concrete. Notice that there are various degrees 
of particularization or specification: 


530 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


living thing; animal; biped; bird; robin; American robin; male Ameri¬ 
can robin; 

machine; automobile; Ford; T-model Ford; open, T-model Ford; ten- 
year-old, open, T-model Ford; dilapidated, ten-year-old, open, T-model 
Ford. 

Hence more specific is often a more accurate characterization of a 
word than specific. 

Pkactice 5 

1. Wrive five specific words that are abstract. 

2. Write five general words that are concrete. 

3. Write ten expressions that are both specific and concrete 
and then ten concrete expressions that are more specific than the 
ones just written. 

Examples of general and more specific expressions: 

(General) Scrooge was miserly. 

(More specific) Oh! but he was a tightfisted hand at the grindstone, 
Scrooge—a squeezing,' crunching, grasping, scraping, clutching, 
covetous old man.— Dickens 

(General) The first baseman stopped a bad throw and put the batter 
out. 

(More specific) In the sixth inning young Mr. Gilbert skidded gaily 
back of third base, careened over on his nose, broke down Hogan^s 
savage grounder, picked himself up in great haste, and nabbed 
J. Francis at first by a lumbering step. 

(General) The sun is hot in the desert. 

(More specific) In the desert the sun’s rays beat down unmercifully, 
scorching and blistering the skin, parching the throat, and numbing 
the brain. 

Practice 6 

Pick out words that paint pictures or appeal to the senses: 

1. London is a great, grayly-overcast, smoke-stained house-wilderness. 

2. She is a superb creature, with eyes that flash and smoulder under 
heaps of tangled black hair. 

3. ' By stiff hat we mean the tall, stiff chimney pot, otherwise known 
as the plug hat or the stovepipe or the topper. 

4. He sported a wide, ferocious, straggling mustache and long eye¬ 
brows, under which gleamed little fierce eyes. 

5. He was an ill-favored, undersized, gruff sailor of fifty, coarsely 
hairy, short-legged, long-armed, resembling an elderly ape.— Conrad 


THE RIGHT WORD 531 

6. He had the look of a dog with a bottle at its tail and wore a coat 
every rag of which was bidding good-day to the rest. 

7. The high-pitched, nasal voice of the round-eyed, button-nosed, 
pink-and-white typist is heard above the shrill ringing of the telephone, 
the pounding and stamping of envelopes, and the clicking of racing type¬ 
writers. 

8. Like a flash Wallace wheeled and dropped into the river. 

9. Without a word Thorpe reached forward, seized the astonished 
servant by the collar, yanked him bodily outside the door, stepped inside, 
and strode across the hall. 

10. He is a great, fat, good-natured, kind-hearted, chicken-livered 
slave, with no more pride than a tramp, no more sand than a rabbit, and 
no more moral sense than a wax figure. 

11. It fell with an oozy, slushy sound on the grass and made a muddy 
kennel of every furrow. 

12. J. Francis Hogan sped down to first base with all the speed of a 
stoutish gentleman running up hill with a load of potatoes on his back. 

Practice 7 

Bring to class a short story, a newspaper story, an editorial, or 
a magazine article with fifteen picture-making words checked. 

Practice 8 

In the following sentences substitute more specific or precise 
words for the general or vague expressions. If necessary, use two 
or more sentences for the concrete details. 

1. They bought a splendid car with a wonderful engine. 

2. Theodore Roosevelt was a fine man. 

3. The weather during August was fierce. 

4. He is the ugliest man I ever saw. 

5. The gymnasium is poorly lighted and equipped. 

6. It was a fine debate. 

7. His speech was poor. 

8. His ideas were good, but his delivery was awful. 

9. The composition is fairly good. 

10. The room is most attractive. 

11. On the boat we met an especially nice girl and had a grand time. 

12. She sang the solo very well. 

13. The refreshments were fine. 

14. Isn’t her dress stunning? „, , i i i n 

15. We had a nice ride, a great swim, a swell lunch, and a lovely walk 

along the beach. 


532 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Practice 9 

Copy eight good sentences from a letter, an advertisement, an essay, 
a novel, or a biography. Underline the effective words. 


Practice 10 


Substitute simple, vigorous expressions for these hackneyed or 
roundabout phrases. 

1. Social function. 2. In reply to same. 3. Anticipating the favor of 
a personal interview, I am. 4. Hoping to see you soon, I remain. 5. Per¬ 
mit me to suggest. 6. In reply to your advertisement in the New York 
World, I beg leave to apply for the position. 7. Favor us with a selection. 
8. Do justice to a dinner. 9. Applauded to the echo. 10. Downy couch. 
11. Sumptuous repast. 12. Black as a crow. 13. People with whom 
he comes in contact. 14. As luck would have it. 15. Sharp as a razor. 
16. It becomes my painful duty. 17. A pleasant time was had by all. 
18. Did the light fantastic. 19. He responded in a few well-chosen 
words. 20. I’m too full for utterance. 21. I have already taken up too 
much of your valuable time. 22. The hour is growing late. 23. Squad 
of pigskin chasers. 

Word Building 

As almost half the words in the dictionary are Latin derivatives, 
every one should know at least the common Latin prefixes and 
stems. 

Latin Prefixes 


a, ah, from 
ad, to, toward 
ante, before 
hi, two 

circum, around 
contra, against 
cum, com, col, cor, 

con, CO, together, with 
de, from, down 
di, dis, apart, from, not 
e, ex, out, out of, from 
extra, beyond 
in, in, into, not 


inter, between 
non, not 

oh, against, in front of 

per, through, thoroughly 

post, after 

prae, before 

pro, for, forward 

re, back, again 

se, apart 

semi, half 

suh, under 

super, above 

trans, across, beyond 


Some of the prefixes are not readily detected because of conso¬ 
nant changes. Ad becomes a {agree), ac {accede), af {affix), ag 
{aggrieve), al {ally), an {annex), ap {append), ar {arrive), as {assent). 


533 


THE RIGHT WORD 


Common Latin Verb Roots 


VERB ROOT 

MEANING 

EXAMPLE 

DEFINITION 

ago, actum 

do, act, drive 

counteract 

act against 

audio, auditum 

hear 

auditor 

one who hears 

capio, captum 

take, seize, hold 

captive 

one taken 

cedo, cessum 

go, yield 

precede 

go before 

credo, creditum 

believe 

credible 

believable 

curro, cursum 

run 

incur 

run into 

do, datum 

give 

data 

facts given 

dico, dictum 

say 

predict 

say before 

duco, ductum 

lead, draw- 

induce 

draw in 

facio, factum 

make, do 

proficient 

making forward 

fero, latum 

bear, carry, bring 

differ 

bear apart 

flecto, flexum 

bend 

flexible 

bending 

fluo, fluxum 

flow 

fluent 

flowing 

frango, fractum 

break 

fracture 

a break 

gradior, gressus 

go, walk, step 

progress 

go forward 

jacio, jectum 

throw, cast 

eject 

cast out 

jungo, junctum 

join 

junction 

a joining 

lego, lectum 

gather, read, 
choose 

legible 

readable 

loquor, locutus 

speak 

elocution 

a speaking out 

mitto, missum 
pello, pulsum 

send, cast 

remit 

send back 

drive, urge 

expel 

drive out 

pendeo, pensum 

hang, pay 

suspend 

hang under 

pono, positum 'V 

place, put 

postpone 

place after 

porto, portatum 

carry, bear 

import 

carry into 

rumpo, ruptum 

break 

rupture 

a break 

scribo, scriptum 

write 

scribe 

a writer 

seco, sectum 

cut 

section 

a cutting 

sedeo, sessum 

sit, settle 

session 

a sitting 

sequor, secutus 

follow 

execute 

follow out 

sto, statum 

stand 

distant 

standing apart 

tango, tactum 

touch 

contagion 

touching together 

traho, tractum 

draw 

attract 

draw to 

venio, ventum 

come 

convene 

come together 

verto, versum 

turn 

avert 

turn aside 

video, visum 

see 

vision 

sight 

voco, vocatum 

call 

vocation 

calling 


Practice 11 

Show from the derivation how each word has acquired its 
present meaning: 

1. Agile, action, counteract. 

2. Audit, audible, audience. 

3. Capture, conception, incipient, anticipate. 



534 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


4. Cede, antecedent, precede, concede, recede, accessible, excess, recess, 
intercession. 

5. Creed, credit, credulous. 

6. Current, recur, incursion, cursory. 

7. Addition, extradition, dative. 

8. Dictum, diction, dictator, dictatorial. 

9. Seduce, reducible, introduce. 

10. Faculty, factotum. 

11. Suffer, transfer, pestiferous, relative. 

12. Deflect, circumflex, inflection. 

13. Affluent, effluence, influence, superfluous, flux. 

14. Fragile, fragment, fraction, infringe. 

15. Digress, transgress, aggression, congress, retrograde, gradual. 

16. Subject, object, interjection, dejected. 

17. Adjunct, conjunction, subjunctive, juncture. 

18. Elect, predilection, lecture, eligible. 

19. Colloquial, soliloquy, ventriloquist. 

20. Transmission, submit, permit. 

21. Propel, repel, repulse, compulsory. 

22. Pendulum, expend, impend, propensity. 

23. Exponent, opponent, punctuation, exposition, interposition. 

24. Portfolio, portmanteau, insupportable, deportment. 

25. Bankrupt, interruption, eruption, disruption. 

26. Circumscribe, superscribe, transcribe, scripture. 

27. Sect, intersect, dissect, sector. 

28. Sedentary, sedate, sediment, supersede, sedulous, preside, subside. 

29. Persecute, consecutive, consequence, sequel. 

30. Contrast, statue, stature, armistice, obstacle. 

31. Tangible, contiguous, contingent, tangent. 

32. Distract, extract, protract, retract, tract. 

33. Convenient, intervene, revenue. 

34. Advertise, controvert, convert. 

35. Evident, provident, vista. 

36. Convocation, advocate, revocation, vocabulary. 


Latin Nouns and Adjectives 


annus, year 
caput, capitis, head 
centum, hundred 
civis, citizen 
cor, cordis, heart 
corpus, corporis, body 
dignus, worthy 
duo, two 
finis, end, limit 
grains, pleasing, thankful 
lex, legis, law 
lingua, tongue 


littera, letter 

magnus, major, maximus, great, 


greater, greatest 
manus, hand 
mors, mortis, death 
nomen, nominis, name 
opus, operis, work 
pars, partis, part 


pes, pedis, foot 


similis, like 
terra, earth 
via, way 


THE RIGHT WORD 
Common Greek Prefixes and Roots 


535 


anti, against 

astron, star 

autos, oneself 

chronos, time 

graphein, write 

hyper, over, exceedingly 

kratos, rule, government 

logos, speech, reason, word, account 


metron, measure 

monos, sole, alone 

onoma, name 

pan, all, whole 

pathos, suffering 

philos, friend, lover 

syn (becomes syl, sym, or sy), with 


Practice 12 

Make a list of English words derived from the twenty-three Latin 
nouns and adjectives and from the Greek prefixes and roots. Know the 
meaning of the words listed. 

Other Sources of Words 

Although more English words are derived from Greek than from 
Anglo-Saxon, most of our common everyday words like he, do, 
grow, sing, and work are Anglo-Saxon. 

Practice 13 

From what language are the words in each group derived? Add 
to as many of the hsts as you can. Do the words in each group 
show anything about the people who use the language? If so, 
what? 

a. Garage, chauffeur, matinee, brunette, bivouac, trousseau, debu¬ 
tante, foyer. 

b. Canto, gondola, soprano, alto, piano, opera, regatta, lava, andante, 
sonnet, stanza, macaroni, spaghetti. 

c. Amen, cherub. Sabbath, jubilee, manna. 

d. Coffee, alcohol, algebra, chemistry, cotton, zero, cipher, mattress, 
assassin. 

e. Potato, tobacco, tomahawk, wigwam, tomato, moccasin, maize, 
canoe, papoose, opossum, squaw. 

/. Cigar, mosquito, mulatto, cargo, armada, desperado, buffalo, 
mustang, vanilla. 

g. Schooner, sloop, yacht, boom, bowsprit, skates, ballast, skipper. 


536 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Test—^Wkiting Vocabulaky 

By using the words in sentences which show clearly their mean¬ 
ing, prove that twenty of the following words are in your writing 
vocabulary. Underline in each sentence the word whose use you 
are illustrating. No credit will be given for any sentence whose 
context does not clearly set forth the meaning of the word. 

Examples: 

(Wrong) His ignominy was great. 

(Right) The ignominy suffered by the deposed official was over¬ 
whelming. 

(Right) One who has a garden of perennials doesnT need to plant 
flower seeds each spring. 


literal 

prologue 

autocrat 

alliteration 

nominal 

epilogue 

autobiography 

gratuitous 

subterranean 

genealogy 

automaton 

astronomy 

pandemonium 

ornithology 

autonomy 

astrology 

biennial 

tautology 

hypercritical 

aster 

magnanimous 

antipathy 

hyperbole 

authentic 

simulate 

apathy 

monotone 

graphic 

anachronism 

philanthropy 

annuity 

psychology 

synchronize 

philosophy 

centipede 

hexameter 

eulogy 

panacea 

superannuated 

perimeter 


Pkactice 14 

When you have used a word three times, it is yours. Hand to your 
teacher a list of new words that you have added to your vocabulary by 
using them three times during the term. If your list now is short, get 
ready to hand in a longer list at the end of the term. 


CHAPTER XXV 

ENUNCIATION AND PRONUNCIATION 

Enunciation is the utterance of elementary sounds. Pronun¬ 
ciation is the act of uttering words with the proper sounds and 
accent. 


American Enunciation 

Of the speech in this country the Ladies' Home Journal says, 
*^The average American is lip-lazy. Thousands of us speak back 
of our teeth, or through our noses, or behind our lips. We do 
not open our mouths when we speak; or if we do we yell or scream. 
A well-modulated voice is the exception; clear enunciation is 
exceedingly rare.” Ethel Barrymore adds, ^There is too much 
slurring of words—too much swallowing of words. Language is 
the vehicle of expression of thought and emotion, and it should 
be treated with more respect.” 

Practice 1 

Prepare to report on the enunciation of ten persons. Listen to their 
speech and watch their lips. How many open their lips and speak dis¬ 
tinctly? 

Importance 

Julius Abernethy says, ^‘Pronunciation is probably the most 
neglected subject of education. This is more deplorable since 
it is by oral rather than by written language that one’s culture 
is commonly judged.” “Pronunciation,” says Frank Jones of 
London University, ''is a label. It is the chief means by which 
we judge a stranger and by which he judges us.” Beatrice 
Knollys says, “Correct pronunciation and enunciation are the 
infallible hallmarks of education and association with well-bred 
people.” 


537 


538 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Test—^Accent 

Copy the following words. Place the accent mark over the last 
letter of the accented syllable of each. 


admirable 

formidable 

adversary 

horizon 

applicable 

hospitable 

comparable 

incognito 

deficit 

inexplicable 

despicable 

inquiry 

dirigible 

lamentable 

disputant 

mediocre 

equitable 

positively 

exquisite 

municipal 


* Test—Pkonunciation 

Many pupils can’t pronounce difficult words when they look 
them up in the dictionary. Can you? Pronounce these words: 

1. automobile (o'to-mo'bil; 6't6-mo-bel') 

2. vaudeville (vod'vil) 

3. auxiliary (6g-zil'yd-ri) 

4. inquiry (m-kwir'i) 

5. psychiatrist (sl-kl'd-trist) 

6. renaissance (ren'e-sans'; re-na'sdns) 

7. indefatigable (m'de-fat'i-gd-b’l) 

8. naivete (na'ev'ta') 

9. despicable (des'pi-kd-b’l) 

10. inexplicable (in-eks'pli-kd-b’l) 

11. Savonarola (sav'6-nd-ro'ld; It. sa'vo-na-ro'la) 

12. New Orleans (nu 6r'le-dnz) 

13. Buenos Ayres (bwa'nos i'ras) 

14. Hio de Janeiro (r^o da zhd-na'ro) 

15. Roosevelt (ro'ze-velt) 

16. Petrograd (pet'ro-grad; Russ, pye'tro-grat') 

17. Chateau-Thierry (sha'to' tye're') 

18. Himalaya (hi-ma'ld-yd) 

19. Versailles (ver'sa'y’; Angl. ver-salz') 

20. Saint-Mihiel (s^n' me'yel') 

If you have pronounced the twenty words correctly, you can 
probably pronounce any word you look up in Webster’s New 
International Dictionary or another dictionary using the same 
system of diacritical marks. And you can pronounce the words 


ENUNCIATION AND PRONUNCIATION 539 

in any dictionary by studying the illustrative words printed at 
the top or the bottom of every page. 

Classes of Sounds 

A vowel is a sound in which the voice is modified, but not 
obstructed, by the mouth and nasal passages. The passage for 
the sound is free. A consonant sound is produced when the voice 
or breath is obstructed by the teeth, hps, tongue, and soft palate. 
The obstruction may be either a closing of the passage or a narrow¬ 
ing, resulting in rubbing or brushing against the sides. 

Pkactice 2 

Which of these represent vowel sounds : a, p, b, w, ob, x, e, &, k, I, rrif 
?, r, A, e, shy oi? Produce each sound and justify your answer. 

Vowels 

In the vowel table the diacritical marks of Webster's New 
International dictionary are used, and the symbols of the Inter¬ 
national Phonetic Association are placed in parentheses. 

Vowels are voice sounds which differ because of movements 
of the lower jaw, lips, and tongue. If the tip of the tongue is 
active but only sHghtly raised, the vowel is called a low front; if 
the tip of the tongue is raised higher, the vowel is a mid front; 
if still higher, a high front. When the back of the tongue is 
raised, the resulting back vowels are fikewise low, mid, and high. 
If neither the front nor the back of the tongue is raised, the vowel 
is mixed. 


Front Mixed Back 

High \ « «>) eve 
\ J (i) ill 

\ d (ei) ate 

Mid \ ^ (e) 

\ d (89) care 

Low \ ^ add 

d ask 
d (di) urn 

“ / High 

00 (u) loot 

0 (ou) old / 

«(A)up/ Mid 

0 (oi) or 

6 (d) odd / 
a (Q!) arm j 






540 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Vowels Occurring Only in Unaccented Syllables 

d, e, 6 (i, o), senate, event, obey 

a, d, 0 , a (printed in italics) ( 9 ), final, sofa, recent, control, circus 

Diphthongs 

I (ai) ice, fly oi (oi) =d+^, oil, boy 

ou (au) =d+do, out, owl u (jui) =?/H-oo, use, dew 

If you say he, hair, ha, haw, who clearly before a mirror, you 
will notice the jaw dropping from he to ha and rising from ha to 
who and the lips spreading or rounding. The mouth opening for 
he is a long narrow slit; for who, a small circle. For ha the mouth 
is wide open. Commonly for low sounds the mouth is wide open; 
for mid sounds, half or three-quarters open; and for high sounds, 
only slightly open. For the production of do, do, o, 6, and o the 
lips are rounded. 

It is possible to produce indistinct vowels without moving the 
jaw or the lips. In the production of clear vowels, however, both 
the jaw and the lips are active. 

Peactice 3 

Produce correctly every vowel and diphthong sound alone and 
in a word. 

Two Classifications of Consonants 

One classification of consonants is according to the stuff of 
which they are made. Your fingers will remember this classifi¬ 
cation for you. Place the thumb and fingers upon the throat 
just above the collar. Then test the consonant sounds. The 
vocal cords vibrate in the production of the voiced consonants 
but are at rest for the breath sounds. The breath consonants are 
p, t, k, f, s, h, th, and sh. 

Practice 4 

1. Produce the voiced consonants. 

2. Produce the breath consonants. 

Consonants are classified also according to the place of articu- 


ENUNCIATION AND PRONUNCIATION 


541 


lation—the point at which the lips, tongue, teeth, and soft palate 
obstruct the voice or breath. Your lips, tongue, teeth, and soft 
palate will remember this classification for you. 


Classification of Consonants According to Place of Articulation 

(With the exception of the symbols 9 , 0, J*, 3, and j placed 
in parentheses, the International Phonetic Association symbols 
are the letters of the alphabet.) 


LIPS 


p, pup 
m, mum 

h, bob 
w, win 


LIPS-TEETH 

/,fife 

V, revive 


TONGUE-TEETH 

th (0), thin 

ih (b), then 


TONGUE-FRONT-PALATE 

tot 

dj dead 
n, nun 

s, this 
z, zone 

1 , lull 

r, roar 


TONGUE-MID-PALATE 

sh (f), ship 
zh (3), azure 

y (j), yet 


TONGUE-BACK-PALATE 

/c, kick 

ng (U), long 

g, go 

GLOTTAL 

h, hide 



ch=tsh (tj*), chair 
j =dzh (ds), joke 
qu = kw, queen 


CONSONANTAL DIPHTHONGS 

wh = hw, why 
x = ks, vex 
x—gz, exist 


Practice 5 

1 . Beginning with h, produce before a mirror all the consonant sounds. 
With your thumb and finger find out whether the vocal cords vibrate. 


542 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Notice the position of the tongue and the lips. Then describe each sound 
by naming two classes to which it belongs: 

6, voice, lips 

kj breath, tongue-back-palate 

2 . Practice the vowel and the consonant sounds alone and in words 
until you know them. Then pronounce again the twenty marked words 
in the test at the beginning of the chapter. 

Various Spellings 

Often a sound may be represented by a half dozen or more 
spellings. Don’t be misled by the spelling; listen to the sound. 
Examples of various spelling are: 

G, (ei)—ate, eight, main, great, prey 

d (se)—care, ere, hair, heir 

e (ii)—eve, machine, heat, beet, key 

% (i)—ill, city, pretty, been 

6 (oi)—orb, all, law, author 

■ii (A)—^up, son, young, blood 

d (9i)—^urn, earn, fir, myrrh, work, earth 

m (u)—foot, pull, wolf 

66 (ui)—^pool, rude, do, grew, shoe 

k —kick, chorus, cat, conquer, pique 

s—this, cell, scene, hiss 

g —go, plague, guard, ghost 

sh (J*)—ship, chaise, ocean, social, sure, nausea, pension, ration 
ch (tf)—chair, question, righteous 
3 (ds)—joke, gem, soldier, edge, region, pigeon 

Test—Repkesenting Sounds 

Indicate the pronunciation of the following twenty-five words. 
Use either the Webster diacritical marks or the alphabet of the 
International Phonetic Association. 


Thomas 

rouge 

quay 

pathos 

wedge 

pleasure 

bureau 

launch 

rank 

tongue 

nuisance 

haughty 

ravine 

triumph 

bivouac 

journey 

caution 

sleight 

says 

true 

mission 

laughed 

heinous 

busy 

pulpit 


How to Correct Mistakes 


Improvement in enunciation and pronunciation depends upon 
you. The teacher will tell you what sounds you utter incor- 


ENUNCIATION AND PRONUNCIATION 


543 


rectly and show you how to produce the correct sounds. Then 
you must practice, practice, practice until the correct sound or 
pronunciation is a firmly fixed habit. You have mastered a sound 
or word if you utter it correctly when your attention is on what 
you say, not how you say it. Dr. Buckley tells how to practice: 
^‘You face your friend exactly, and pronouncing your words 
distinctly in an underbreath, you command your articulation to 
convey them to your friend’s eye rather than to his ear, for he is 
as carefully watching how you speak as he is intently listening 
to what you say.” 

CONSONANT ERRORS (REVIEW) 
wh 

Wh = h-{-w. Don’t omit the h. Pronounce why, when, where, 
and which as if they were spelled hwy, hwen, hwere, hwich. 


Distinction Exercise 


whale—wail 
which—^witch 
lyhittier—wittier 
whether—^weather 
wheel—weal 


what—watt 
white—wight 
where—^wear 
why—y 
while—wile 


Practice Sentences 

1. We wonder whether whales are whimsical. 

2. Why does Walter whistle while he waits? 

3. What whim led White to whistle near the wharf where a whale 
might whirl or wheel? 

ng 

N is carelessly substituted for ng (p). Some foreigners learning 
English change ng (p) to ngg (pg) or to ngk (pk). The g or k is an 
explosion of voice or breath after the sound is complete. In a 
word hke sing stop the voice before dropping the tongue. 


Distinction Exercise 


finger—singer 
longer—longing 
stronger—stringing 
bank—bang 
English—clangor 


jumping—jump in 
running—run in 
coughing—coffin 
banquet—banging 
linger—ringer 



544 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Practice Sentences 

1. Every one jumped aside as the rearing, plunging horse dashed by, 
dragging the driver, who was still clinging to the reins. 

2. Amid the banging and clanging of bells the boy kept clinging to 
the swin ging rope. 

th 

D and t are sometimes substituted for th (d) and th (6). Place 
the tongue against the upper teeth, not against the upper gum. 

Practice Sentences 

1. They thought that the man who came to their house saw them do 
this. 

2. Thence through the dense woods they went this day. 

5 

The sound of s is sometimes hissed. If the tongue is kept back 
so that the tip does not touch the teeth, it is impossible to hiss 
the sound. 

Practice Sentence 

‘‘Amidst the mists and coldest frosts. 

With stoutest wrists and loudest boasts, 

He thrusts his fists against the posts. 

And still insists he sees the ghosts.’’ 


Omission of a Consonant at the End of a Word or in a Difficult 
Combination of Sounds 

The tongue is naturally lazy. In a difficult combination of 
sounds like cts and sts it prefers to avoid work by omitting one 
or two of the sounds. Practice at first with a slight pause after 
the first of the three consonants: ac-ts, fac-ts, objec~ts, lis-ts, fis-ts. 
Don’t omit the final sound in words like told, past, send, and lest. 


Distinction Exercise 


acts—axe 
tents—tense 
dents—dense 
mints—mince 
prints—^prince 


lest—less 
worst—worse 
last—lass 
learned—learn 
earned—earn 


ENUNCIATION AND PRONUNCIATION 545 

Practice Sentences 

1. The facts revealed showed that his intents, objects, and acts were 
quite different. 

2. Down swept the chill wind from the mountain peak, 

From the snow five thousand summers old; 

On open wold and hilltop bleak 
It had gathered all the cold 

And whirled it like sleet on the wanderer’s cheek.— Lowell 

3. Lest the next west wind should make him cold, he slept with his 
first, second, and fifth windows closed. 


Interchanging of Voice and Breath Consonants 


t-d —little, partner 
p-h —potatoes, principal 
f-v —revive, relative 
s-z —persist, because 


k-g —recognize 
ch-j —pillage, college 
th-Uh —with, thither 
sh-zh —version, adhesion 


T and d are called cognates because they are made by the 
same action of the articulatory organs. They differ only in the 
stuff of which they are made; t, breath; d, voice. The other pairs 
are likewise cognates. Place the thumb and finger upon the 
throat just above the collar (the Adam’s apple, voice box, or 
larynx). Pronounce the breath sounds s, /, and sh, and the voice 
sounds z, V, and zh. Notice the vibration when the voice sounds 
are produced. Most frequently the breath sound is substituted 
for the voice, sound, but occasionally the opposite mistake is 
heard. Much practice on the voiced sounds is needed. 


Distinction Exercise 


half—have 
sown—zone 
assure—azure 
ceases—seizes 
mouth—^mouths 


pitching—pigeon 
match—Madge 
census—senses 
thistle—this 
etching—edging 


Practice Sentences 

1. Because our ninety friends and relatives in the village have revived 
their courage, they will resist the Zulus. 

2. Peg’s pug dog dug for bones by the dock. 

3. He gazed and gazed at the buildings of the college ablaze with light. 


546 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


VOWEL ERRORS (REVIEW) 

a and a 

Although many educated men and women use the sound d in 
grass, hath, half, laughter, and aunt, it is wise to learn the sounds 
a and d. One reason is that the sounds a and a are soft and 
pleasing, whereas a is sharp and disagreeable. In words hke add, 
man, hand, and land, singers frequently substitute d or d for d, 
because a is unmusical. 

To learn to produce d and d— 

1. Imitate good speakers. 

2. Everybody produces d correctly when followed by r; as, car, 
harvest, farm, harm. Learn this sound. 

3. Think of d and d as farther back in the mouth than d. A is 
a back sound; and dj a mixed. 

4. Think of d as halfway between d and d. 


Distinction Exercise 


cant—can’t—cart 
bank—bask—bark 
lank—last—lark 
dank—dance—dark 


hand—command 
rank—raft 
rash—rasp 
mash—mast 


Practice Sentences 

1. After the dance the class asked the plasterer whether the basket 
was filled with brass, glass, grass, or madras. 

2. His wit is scant, for he calmly calls his aunt an ant. 

3. That was the pastor’s last task in France. 

u 

The sound u is frequently pronounced do by educated and 
intelligent people. The preferred pronunciation is y+dd. Think 
of words with u as if they were written dyooty, tyooh, dyook, syoot, 
tyoon, and Nyoo York. After r, I preceded by a consonant, and 
usually after j and the sound of sh, the sound is do: hloo (blue), 
root (rule), Joon (June), shoor (sure). 


due—do 
tulips—two lips 
tutor—^tooter 
duly—Dooley 


Distinction Exercise 

news—noose 
duke—do 
lute—^loot 
stew—stool 


ENUNCIATION AND PRONUNCIATION 547 

Practice Sentences 

1. When Luke went down the avenue on Tuesday, he saw an enthu¬ 
siastic substitute, an accurate superintendent, a stupid dude, a lunatic, a 
student, a picture, and innumerable new suits. 

2. The opportunity and duty of the duke was to institute education 
and manufacture in New York. 

3. Poor posture during an oral recitation is usually not due to stupidity. 

a, au;, o, ow at the End of a Syllable or Word 

An error results from letting the point of the tongue glide to 
the front palate and produce an extra sound at the end of words 
like saw, idea, and fellow. To prevent this parasitic r, hold the 
tongue firm—that is, keep the tongue behind the lower teeth on 
the vowel sound. Use a mirror for this correction. 


Distinction Exercise 


yellow—yeller 
fellow—feller 
awe—ore 
law—lore 
saw—sbre 


comma—comer 
saw I—sore eye 
raw—^roar 
draw—drawer 
flaw—floor 


Practice Sentences 

1. Amanda sleeps on a narrow pillow near the window. 

2. That fellow idn’t use a comma in his composition. 

3. In Utica, Martha and Anna read the extra, saw the society drama, 
and drank sarsaparilla and vanilla soda. 


ou 

Town is often incorrectly pronounced td don instead of td don; 
now, nd do instead of nd do. Don't nasalize this sound. Open 
the mouth wide for the sound d and let it come out through the 
mouth. 

Practice Sentences 


1. Without a sound the scout went around the house for the pound of 
powder. 

2. Without doubt the count will send the announcement down to the 
^^3. How do you know that house, mound, and sound are nouns? 


548 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Pkactice 6 

If you produce incorrectly h, w, v, r, Im, sm, do, 6, 6, e, oi, er, i, 
d, 6, or another sound not discussed in this chapter, look up the 
sound in English in Action, Course One, Course Two or elsewhere, 
learn how to produce the sound, write practice sentences, and 
practice until you break your bad habit and establish the right one. 

The First Syllable 

The careless speaker sometimes omits the vowel in the first 
syllable, sometimes pronounces it incorrectly. Examples are 
degree and dugree for degree, and h’lieve and hulieve for believe. 
Don’t, of course, make an unstressed syllable unduly prominent. 

Words That Need Watching 

About, agree, afraid, address, arrest, allow, because, begin, before, 
debate, decide, desert, defer, descend, disease, dispatch, affect, effect, 
efficient, eleven, engage, ensure, escape, perform, prefer, perhaps, become, 
police, surround, describe, despair. 

Practice 7 

Read the following selections with precise and delicate artic¬ 
ulation. Finish every word. Cut the words apart. 

1 . Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn. 

Thy sports are fled, and all thy charms withdrawn; 

Amidst thy bowers the tyrant’s hand is seen. 

And desolation saddens all thy green: 

One only master grasps the whole domain. 

And half a tillage stints thy smiling plain.— Goldsmith 

2. Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond. 

Thou but offend’st thy lungs to speak so loud.— Shakespeare 

PRONUNCIATION PRACTICE AND MATCHES 

Oliver Wendell Holmes says. 

Once more: Speak clearly, if you speak at all; 

Carve every word before you let it fall. 

Carving lends distinction, as well as distinctness, to one’s 
thought. 


ENUNCIATION AND PRONUNCIATION 

Accent 


549 


accent (verb) 

conversant 

harass 

museum 

acumen 

decade 

herculean 

narrator 

absolutely 

defects 

homeopathy 

orchestra 

address 

deficit 

horizon 

ordeal 

admirable 

despicable (30) 

hospitable 

positively (80) 

adversary 

detail 

hyperbole 

precedence 

adverse 

detour 

impious 

precedent (adj.) 

affluence 

dirigible 

impotent 

preferable 

albumen 

discharge (noun) 

incognito 

pretense 

alias (10) 

discourse 

incomparable (60) primarily 

allies 

disputant 

incongruous 

pyramidal 

alloy 

divan 

industry 

recall 

ancestral 

elevated 

inexplicable 

recourse 

applicable 

encore 

infamous 

reparable 

brigand 

entire (40) 

influence 

reputable (90) 

caricature 

equitable 

inquiry 

research 

cerebrum 

excess 

integral 

resources 

champion 

explicable 

interesting 

robust 

chastisement 

exponents 

irreparable 

romance 

coquette (20) 

exquisite 

lamentable (70) 

spectator 

combatant 

fiance 

lyceum 

superfluous 

comparable 

formidable 

maniacal 

theater 

condolence 

gondola 

mediocre 

traverse 

contrary ^ 

grimace 

mischievous 

unfrequented 

contumely 

guardian (50) 

municipal 

vehement (100) 


Proper Names 


America 

Cincinnati 

Goethe 

Petrograd 

Amherst 

Cleopatra (20) 

Hades 

Philippine 

Antarctic 

Coleridge 

Hawaii 

Roosevelt 

Arab 

Colorado 

Hoboken (40) 

Saint Helena 

Arkansas 

Concord 

Indian 

San Jose 

Avon 

Czech 

Italian 

San Juan 

Boer 

Danish 

January 

Santiago (60) 

Boston 

Delhi 

Leicester 

Savonarola 

Bowdoin 

De Medici 

Les Miserables 

Schenectady 

British (10) 

Edinburgh 

Malay 

Spokane 

Butte 

English 

Magna Charta 

Tennessee 

Cairo (Egypt) 

February (30) 

Mazzini 

Thames 

California 

Foch 

Mohammedanism Trafalgar (Square) 

Carnegie 

France 

New Jersey (50) 

Tuesday 

Ceylon 

Genoa 

New Orleans 

United States- 

Chdteau-Thierry 

Geoffrey 

New York 

Worcester 

Cheyenne 

Ghent 

Palestine 

Yosemite (70) 

Chicago 

Gloucester 





550 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Divided Usage 


Is one pronunciation preferable? Why? 


abdomen 

demonstrate 

haunt 

ration 

acclimate 

diamond (20) 

herb 

rebate (noun) 

adult 

diphthong 

illustrate 

recess 

advertisement 

drama 

indisputable (40) 

relay (noun) 

amateur 

dramatization 

indissoluble 

reptile 

apricot 

effort 

juvenile 

Pheims 

apron 

egotism 

leisure 

rise (noun) (60) 

asphalt 

either 

lever 

sacrifice 

automobile 

Elizabethan 

Los Angeles 

souvenir 

barbarian (10) 

envelope 

neither 

spinach 

bravado 

every 

organization 

squalor 

buoy 

can’t 

excursion (30) 

Paderewski 

tomato 

e^dle 

patriotism 

truths 

chauffeur 

extraordinary 

prelude (50) 

valet 

cocaine 

finance 

promenade 

Versailles 

concentrate 

foyer 

pronunciation 

won’t 

daunt 

garage 

rabies 

youths (70) 

deaf 

gladiolus 




Miscellaneous 


accompaniment 

casualty 

hypocritical 

regime 

adhesion 

chef 

incorrigible 

repartee 

a la carte 

clique 

indefatigable 

resume (noun) 

alma mater 

comptroller 

intrinsic 

resuscitate 

aluminum 

data 

irrelevant 

ruse 

anticlimax 

debris 

irrevocable 

sanguine 

antithesis 

diffuse (adj.) 

jardiniere 

sacrilegious 

appendicitis 

dishevel 

justiciable 

scintillate 

archives 

61ite 

lief 

sinecure 

attitude (10) 

facilities (30) 

magnanimity (50) statistician (70) 

audacious 

fountain 

manuscript 

status 

bacillus 

fricassee 

mirage 

subpoena 

beneficent 

fulsome 

naive 

table d’hote 

biennial 

garrulous 

newspaper 

tonsilitis 

bituminous 

glisten 

pantomime 

trigonometry 

blase 

gratis 

pentameter 

vagary 

bona fide 

gubernatorial 

physicist 

variegated 

bourgeois 

heinous 

propaganda 

verbatim 

bourgeoisie 

hexameter 

quietus 

virulent 

camouflage (20) 

hydrangea (40) 

recognition (60) 

wharfs (80) 


CHAPTER XXVI 

FIGURES OF SPEECH 

What Is a Figure of Speech? 

Notice the two ways of expressing each of the following ideas: 

1. Everybody has some envy in his make-up. 

2. Envy lurks at the bottom of the human heart, like a viper in its hole. 

3. Former President Taft was a hard worker. 

4. Former President Taft was a beaver. 

5. He was nervous and excited. 

6. He was about as calm and collected as a man with St. Vitus dance 
walking a tight rope over Niagara Falls in a hurricane.— Witwer 

7. She showed in many ways that she liked him. 

8. She threw herself at him like a medicine ball. 

Numbers 1, 3, 5, and 7 are straightforward, matter-of-fact 
expressions of the ideas. In 2, 4, 6, and 8 figures of speech, or 
intentional deviations from the usual forms of expression, are 
used to make the ideas concrete, vivid, beautiful, forceful, or 
amusing. Everybody enjoys moving pictures and word pictures, 
but few can understand lengthy abstractions. 

Simile 

In a simile unlike objects are compared, and as or like is used. 

She is as graceful as a white birch. 

He eats like a wolf. 

Base and crafty cowards are like the arrow that flieth in the dark. 

You have about as much chance as a woodpecker making a nest in a 
concrete telephone pole. 

Likening one man to another, one house to another, or one river 
to another is not a figure of speech: '‘He looks like his father.’' 

Metaphor 

A metaphor is a comparison of unlike objects without as or like. 

He wolfed down his breakfast. 


551 


552 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to 
be chewed and digested.— Bacon 

I shall light a candle in thy heart which shall not be put out. 

The Giants pecked away at old Alex for three innings without getting 
a run. 

When in the fourth inning Miller, the Indians’ pitcher, developed blind 
staggers, Babe Ruth slapped one into right field bleachers for a homer. 

As the last two sentences indicate, metaphors are frequently 
used in sport stories. Many slang expressions are metaphors: 
hats in his belfry, crash the gate, dry up, spill the beans, step on the 
gas, get his goat, high hat, hit the hay, peachy. 

Practice 1 

Metaphors are commonly used in advertising. Find ten 
metaphors in advertisements. 

A mixed metaphor results from using in a sentence two or more 
contradictory metaphors. Occasionally metaphors are effectively 
mixed for humorous effects. Avoid, however, in serious speech 
or writing such ridiculous mixtures as the following: 

The politicians will keep cutting the wool off the sheep that lays the 
golden eggs, until they pump it dry. (Here a politician is compared with 
three men. Who are the three?) 

I smell a rat, I see it floating in the air, but I shall nip it in the bud. 

Difference between a Metaphor and a Simile 

Similes 

1. Paddock is as fleet as Mercury of old. 

2. Procrastination is like a thief that steals time, not money. 

3. The ship, like a plough in a field, turns up the sea. 

Metaphors 

1. Paddock is a modern Mercury. 

2. Procrastination is the thief of time. 

3. The ship plows the sea. 

Note that every metaphor may be changed to a simile and 
every simile to a metaphor, and that the metaphor is briefer, 
sv/ifter, and liveher than the simile. The metaphor is a condensed 


FIGURES OF SPEECH 


553 


simile. Usually, however, the longer simile, in which the com¬ 
parison is expressed, is easier to understand or picture than the 
terse metaphor, in which the comparison is implied. , 

Practice 2 

Name the figure in each of the following. What are com¬ 
pared? What is the point of likeness? Which figures seem to 
you particularly striking or effective? Why? 

Model for Written Work 

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, 

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage 

And then is heard no more.— Shakespeare 

Metaphor. Life is compared with a shadow and with a poor 
actor. Life, fike a walking shadow or the performance of a poor 
actor, doesn’t last long. This is an effective figure because in a 
striking, unusual, and rememberable way Shakespeare reminds 
us that fife is short. 

1. He felt like the symptoms on a medicine bottle. 

2. Thy soul was like a star and dwelt apart.— Wordsworth 

3. Contentment is a pearl of great price. 

4. To listen to the advice of a treacherous friend is like drinking poison 
from a golden cup. 

5. Your face, my thane, is as a book where men 
May read strange matters.— Shakespeare 

6. Where did you get that goose look? 

7. Good nature, like a bee, collects honey from everywhere. Ill 
nature, like a spider, sucks poison from the sweetest flower. 

8. Life is an isthmus between two eternities. 

9. She has a cat-like tread. 

10. The woman was a tigress in the defense of her children. 

11. These fellows who are for the return of the saloon want some of 
the bacon. . 

12. Writing is like pulling the trigger of a gun; if you are not loaded, 
nothing happens.—C anby 

13. The human mind should be like a good hotel—open the year round. 

—Phelps 

14. Spare moments are the gold dust of time. 

15. There are many minds that are like a sheet of thin ice. You have 
to skate on them pretty rapidly or you’ll go through.— Morley 


554 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


16. She put her slender fingers to her marble brow. 

17. For joy is the best wine, and Silas’s guineas were golden wine of 
that sort.— George Eliot 

18. I had been aU this time a very hedgehog, bristling all over with 
determination.—D ickens 

19. He has a heart of stone. 

20. Liddy, like a little brook, though shallow, was always rippling. 

—Hardy 

21. Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare.— Byron 

22. He has the sense of humor of a crocodile. 

23. Life is playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument 
as one goes along.—B ennett 

24. Sweet are the uses of adversity. 

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous. 

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.— Shakespeare 

25. She sings as if mere speech had taken fire.— ^Yeats 

26. In the voyage of life we cannot all be cabin passengers. Some must 
sweat in the engine room. 

27. I am about as comfortable as a fish in a keg of nails. 

28. She has a voice like a soprano hyena.— Mackall 

29. He is about as popular as a loud speaker in a two-room flat. 

30. She is as shy as a man-eating crocodile.— ^Ferrer 

Practice 3 


Complete the similes: 

1. She was as quiet as a. 

2. They were as swift as.. and as strong as__ 

3. When Harold cut his finger, he squealed like a. 

4. When Juliet’s father heard of her refusal to marry the prince, he 

roared like a. 

5. Finding himself surrounded, the prisoner fought like a_to 

regain his freedom. 

6. Her skin was as white as. 

7. Her locks were yellow as. 

8. Gloom hung like a.. over the land. 

9. His shoes look like. 

10. He is as wise as. 

11. He is as sly as. 

12. She is as fair as... 

13. He is as faithful as. 

14. He is as noisy as. 

15. He is as thrifty as ___ 

















FIGURES OF SPEECH 
Practice 4 


555 


Express these thoughts in metaphorical language: 

1. He is a hard worker. 

2. He is stubborn. 

3. You are foolish. 

4. When he knows what he wants, he sticks to it till he gets it. 

5. Every one in the schoolroom was busy. 

6. There were a great many faces in front of me. 

7. He was thoroughly indignant. 

8. He kept his eyes on the floor. 

9. He is innocent. 

10. He was brave in the fight. 

Other Figures 

Personification, a kind of metaphor, consists in giving personal 
attributes to inanimate objects or abstract ideas. 

The waves danced. 

The mnd whistled, wailed, sobbed, and whispered. 

But I am faint; my gashes cry for help.— Shakespeare 
Joy and Temperance and Repose 
Slam the door in the doctor’s nose. 

The pitiful trees moaned when the lightning struck them. 

Apostrophe is an address to the absent as if present or the 
inanimate as if human. 

Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour: 

England hath need of thee.— ^Wordsworth 

My country, Tis of thee, 

Sweet land of liberty. 

Of thee I sing.—S mith 

Metonymy is a figure of speech in which one word is put for 
another which it suggests. Some common relations that give 
rise to metonymy are— 

1. Container and thing contained 

Please address the chair (chairman). 

Your castle (the inhabitants) is surprised. 


556 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


2. Sign and thing signified 

The pen (books, newspapers, and magazines) is mightier than the 
sword (armies and navies). 

Have you no respect for gray hairs (age)? 

3. An author and his books 

We are reading George Eliot (her novels). 

4. The part for the whole 

She has seen sixteen summers (years). 

All hands (men) to the deck! 

5. An individual for a class 

He is a Rockefeller (a very rich man). 

6. Cause and effect or effect and cause 
There is death (poison) in the cup. 

Pkactice 5 

Show that in each of the following metonymies a word is put 
in the place of another: 

1. From the cradle to the grave is but a day. 

2. He earned his bread by the sweat of his brow. 

3. When the pot boils, turn off the gas. 

4. He has a warm heart. 

5. He sets a good table. 

6. When the workman comes home and settles in his easy chair, he 
finds his pipe a source of great comfort. 

7. AH the town was starving. 

8. He hurled the pigskin fifty yards to the waiting left end. 

9. Which china shall we use for dinner? 

10. The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade 

For talking age and whispering lovers made.— Goldsmith 

Antithesis is a contrast of words or ideas. As white seems 
whiter when placed beside black, and a sound seems loudest on 
a quiet night or in a quiet place, so contrasting words or ideas 
makes them more emphatic. Antithesis is most effective if the 
phrasing of the contrasted ideas is parallel. 

His body is active, but his mind is sluggish. 


FIGURES OF SPEECH 


557 


Look like the innocent flower, 

But be the serpent under ^t.— Shakespeare 

Easy writing makes hard reading; hard writing, easy reading. 

Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge, but he that hateth re¬ 
proof is brutish.— Bible 

Hyperbole is exaggeration not intended to deceive. Some 
humorists—Mark Twain, for example—use hyperbole freely as 
a device for making people laugh. 

His hands dangled a mile out of his sleeves.— Irving 

At the party I drank buckets of punch. 

Waves mountain-high broke over the reef. 

When he told me the joke, I almost died laughing. 

The movie bored me to death. 

So frowned the mighty combatants that hell grew darker at their 
. frown.— Milton 

Irony is saying the opposite of what is meant in a tone or man¬ 
ner that shows what the speaker thinks. 

After Norman had wasted his evening in nonsense, his father re¬ 
marked, “Don’t you think you have studied too hard this evening?” 

It was very kind of you to remind me of my humiliation. 

To cry like a baby—^that’s a fine way for a man to act. 

Practice 6 

Name the figures of speech in the following sentences. If the 
figure is a comparison, name the objects compared. Which 
figures do you consider most effective? Why? 

1. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.— Bible 

2. Youth should reverence age. 

3. The keen morning air bites our faces and hands. 

4. Strike for your altars and your fires!— Halleck 

5. Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting. — Wordsworth 

6. O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being.— Shelley 

7. The mist of death was shed upon his eyes. — ^Homer 

8. The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold. — ^Byron 

9. His trousers are a mile too short. 

10. Now Rumor the messenger went about the street, teUing the tale 
of the dire death and fate of the wooers.— Homer 

11 . All the world’s a stage.—S hakespeare 


558 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


12. The redskins were put to flight. 

13. Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship.— Coleridge 

14. Pleasures are like poppies spread.— Burns 

15. Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State.— Longfellow 

16. The train flew at lightning speed. 

17. The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the 
bear but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.— Macaulay 

18. Sport that wrinkled Care derides. 

And Laughter holding both his sides.— Milton 

19. I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent.— Shakespeare 

20. I have been reading Stevenson. 

21. Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean, roll.— Byron 

22. At one stride comes the dark.— Coleridge 

23. He has an iron muscle. 

24. Walter the Doubter was exactly five feet six inches in height and 
six feet five inches in circumference.— Irving 

25. Teach us, sprite or bird, what sweet thoughts are thine.— Shelley 

26. His bump of humor is a dent.— Joseph Lincoln 

27. The express train ran so fast that the mile posts looked like fence 
rails. 

28. The short evening flew away on gossamer wings.— Dickens 

29. He bought a hundred head of cattle. 

30. Life is made up of marble and mud.— Hawthorne 

31. He has an axe to grind. 

32. There is a tide in the affairs of men. 

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.— Shakespeare 

33. One occasion trod upon the other’s heels.— Dickens 

34. You look about as fat as a stall-fed knitting needle.— ^White 

35. Life is a leaf of paper white. 

Whereon each one of us may write 
His word or two.— Lowell 

36. You have put the cart before the horse. 

37. She sent the gentle sleep from Heaven, 

That slid into my soul. — Coleridge 

38. They work to pass, not to know; and outraged Science takes her 
revenge. They do pass, and they don’t know.— Huxley 

39. Princes and lords are but the breath of kings. 

40. It is the joUiest house I was ever in. 

41. Every man would live long, but no man would be old. 

42. He employs a score of hands. 

43. The heavens smiled on us today. 

44. After creeping along the utmost verge of the opaque puddle of 
obscurity, they had taken the downright plunge.— Hawthorne 

45. The tale of his ungentle past was scarred upon his face.— Locke 


FIGURES OF SPEECH 559 

46. When people have wooden heads, you know, it can’t be helped. 

, —George Eliot 

47. McKechme s players had just received three body blows from the 
McGrawmen, and the wallops put them in second place and sent the 
Giants to the head of the pennant procession. 

48. The Yai^ee counter rally was punctured suddenly with the bases 
full when Gehrig lined into a double play. 

49. The outlandish things would shock an alligator.— Locke 

50. Withered leaves stiU clung to the branches of the oak: torn and 
faded banners of the departed summer.— Henry van Dyke 


^ Test—Figures of Speech 

Name a. figure of speech in each of the following. On your 
answer paper write the name after the number of the sentence. 

1. To err is human; to forgive, divine.— Pope 
. 2. He wore canoes on his feet. 

3. But alone you must drink life’s gall.—^W ilcox 

4. Let not ambition mock their useful toil. 

Their homely joys, and destiny obscure.— Gray 

5. Character is what we are; reputation is what men think we are. 

6. The hai^bor was crowded with masts. 

7. Misfortune is a fine opiate for personal terror. 

8. Most glorious Night, thou wert not sent for slumber.— Byron 

9. What has the gray-haired prisoner done? 

Has murder stained his hand with gore? 

Not so; his crime is a fouler one— 

God made the old man poor.— Whittier 

10. Red as a rose is she.—C oleridge 

11. It is a village of five hundred chimneys. 

12. Night’s candles are burnt out.— Shakespeare 

13. I appeal from the decision of the chair. 

14. Pestilence stalks at night through the streets of the city. 

15. His garments fitted him like a shirt on a handspike. 

—Joseph Lincoln 

16. Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. 

17. He worked hard to keep the wolf from the door. 

18. He writes me letters on a typewriter suffering from an impediment 
in its speech. 

19. An upright public official asks what recommends a man; a corrupt 
official, who. 

20. Drink, the great fowler, had bagged one more.— Harrison 


560 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Discuss the figurative language in the following theme. Are 
the figures used vivid, natural, and truthful? 

WINTER 

Winter is a huge burly fellow with a gruff voice and domineering way. 
He is a queer combination of bully and artist. When he is gentle, the 
world smiles; but when he is angry he rushes over the land shouting and 
boasting and the world becomes bleak and barren. The poor naked 
trees shiver with cold and fright, and Winter’s slave, the north wind, 
drives the dark clouds onward in his fury. Then Winter repents and 
dresses the trees in crystal gowns, which sparkle and glitter in the cold 
frosty moonlight, while God looks down pleased to find such a beautiful 
world. 


APPENDIX 






APPENDIX 

VOICE 

American Voice 

Europeans think of Americans as loud-voiced and boastful. 
Henry James says that the American voice is ^‘one of the stum¬ 
bling-blocks of our continent.^’ He adds, is easier to overlook 
any question of speech than to trouble about it, but then it is 
easier to snort or neigh, to growl or meow, than to articulate 
and intonate.’^ The French voice, the English voice, and the 
Italian voice, on the other hand, show training and conscious 
attention. 

Steady Practice 

Unfortunately voices are not suddenly or marvelously trans¬ 
formed. Practice ‘‘now and then’’ is almost worthless. Listless, 
half-hearted, lazy practice is a waste of time. Intelligent, en¬ 
thusiastic practice for five minutes a day and the habit of Hstening 
to one’s own voice and the voices of others will insure marked 
improvement. 

Voice Production 

The vocal apparatus consists of the lungs, diaphragm, wind¬ 
pipe, larynx, vocal cords, glottis, pharynx, mouth, tongue, Hps, 
cheeks, teeth, nasal cavity, soft palate, and hard palate. 

All voice is produced during exhalation. The air from the 
lungs is changed into voice by the vocal cords. These are two 
yellow semicircular, elastic tissues stretched across the larynx. 
When no voice is being produced, they are separated and permit 
the air to pass freely through the opening between them, which is 
shaped fike the letter V. The cords are drawn together for the 
production of voice, which is the sound waves set in motion by 
the vibration of the vocal cords as the column of air is forced out 
between them. This sound, which experiment has shown to be 
only a squeak, is increased and modified by the pharynx, mouth, 

562 


APPENDIX 


563 


and nasal cavity, which act Hke a megaphone or the loud speaker 
of a radio. 

The muscles that regulate the vocal cords are involuntary. A 
person can’t change the pitch by thinking what the muscles and 
cartilages controlling the pitch mechanism of the vocal cords are 
to do. But he can insure three conditions of good voice pro¬ 
duction: breath support, freedom, and placing. 

Breath Support 

Breath support includes taking and holding the breath. The 
lungs should be filled like a jug or a barrel, from the bottom up. 
Hence think of taking the breath down to the middle of the body. 
The result will be a lowering of the diaphragm and an expansion 
of the body centering near the waisthne. Just to make sure that 
you are breathing properly, observe the action when you laugh 
or breathe easily while lying on your back. 

\ Breathing Cautions 

1. Do not raise the shoulders. 

2. Do not neglect to fill the upper part of the lungs. 

3. Do not overcrowd the lungs. Pupils frequently take too 
much breath and must expel a part when they begin to speak. 
Take just enough breath for a feeling of comfortable fullness. 

4. Frequent pauses to keep the lungs filled will give a force 
and vigor to flat, flabby, lifeless tones. 

A proper use of the breath taken in is necessary. Many be¬ 
ginners let the breath rush out on the first few sounds and end 
the phrase or sentence feebly. Practice economy. Except in 
shouting, there should be a feeling of holding the breath back 
rather than of forcing it out. Don’t let the chest fall. Keep the 
diaphragm firm. A strong foundation is just as necessary for an 
even, clear, buoyant tone as for a skyscraper. 

Vocal Freedom 

Any attempt to do anything with the vocal mechanism may 
cause throatiness. If the muscles of the chin, pharynx, back of 


564 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


tongue, lower jaw, soft palate, or false vocal cords contract, they 
constrict the voice and make it harsh and hard. 

To relax the voice muscles and prevent throatiness— 

1. Practice yawning with the back of the tongue down and the 
tip against the lower teeth. Let the jaw drop easily and lazily. 
Test the mouth opening by placing three fingers between the teeth. 

2. Let the jaw drop easily as you speak. 

3. Keep the tongue relaxed and forward and the back part of 
the mouth large. Talk as if you had a hot potato in the back of 
your mouth and had to keep away from it. 

4. Think of the throat as a funnel through which the air passes. 

5. When speaking vigorously, apply the power at the waist 
rather than at the throat. 

6. Keep the stream of air or voice flowing smoothly and evenly. 

Voice Placing 

Voice placing suggests that the voice should have a striking 
point or center of resonance. It is well to think of the voice as 
hitting the roof of the mouth just behind the teeth. 

Resonance 

Resonance is the enlargement of the voice resulting from its 
reverberation in the cavities of the pharynx, mouth, and nose. 
The tuning fork and resonator illustrate the importance of 
resonance, as the resonator enlarges the sound produced by the 
tuning fork about two hundred fold. The megaphone is a more 
familiar illustration. As resonance may enlarge the voice about 
six hundred per cent and also make it more pleasing, it is impor¬ 
tant to keep the pharynx and mouth free and large. 

Tone Projection 

Tone projection is sending the voice straight to a definite point. 
When talking to your class or a larger audience, think of your 
voice as a stream of sound and send it out to the people in the 
rear seats. 


APPENDIX 


565 


Practice 

Stand with head erect, chin at right angles to the throat, chest lifted 
and arched, shoulders square, body erect, arms and hands naturally at 
the side, and weight principally on the balls of the feet. 

For Breath Support 

1. Inhale; exhale. Don’t raise the shoulders or overcrowd the lungs. 

2. Inhale; hold the breath; exhale. 

3. Inhale; exhale on s, letting out the breath slowly and steadily. 

4. Inhale; exhale on o. Make the sound steady. 

5. Count from one to twelve in a whisper. 

For Forward Placing and Resonance 

1. Hum m on a level tone and through the octave. Hum moo, mo, mah. 

2. Count from twenty to twenty-nine, prolonging the w’s. Direct the 
tone to the pupil farthest from you. 

3. Hum m gently. Then change to n by opening the mouth and raising 
the tip of the tongue to the hard palate. 

4. Practice ring-ring-ring, prolonging the ng. Practice in the same 
way sing, song) ring, wrong, ding, dong. 

For Freeing the Voice {Avoiding Throatiness) 

1. Inhale; exhale on ah prolonged musically. 

2. Give ah-vah-vah-vah-vah, taking a deep breath and opening the mouth 
well before each syllable. 

For Breath Support, Forward Placing, Vocal Freedom, Tone 
Projection, Brilliancy, and Resonance 

1. Count one, three, jive, nine, inhaling before each count. 

2. Inhale; count from one to twelve, pausing for breath after three, six, 
and nine. Open the mouth to let the tone out. Watch it going down a 
long passageway. 

3. Inhale; count from one to twelve without pausing for breath. Begin 
softly and increase the force as you proceed. 

4. Give e, a, d, 6 , d, do. Sustain on a level as in singing. Practice also 
these sounds preceded by m, n, I in soft and moderately loud tones. 

5. Practice in a big round voice such passages as these: 

(1) Roll on, thou deep and dark blue Ocean, roll! 

Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain; 

Man marks the earth with ruin—his control 
Stops with the shore. 


566 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


(2) I impeach Warren Hastings of high crimes and misdemeanors. 

(3) Forward, the Light Brigade! 

(4) Charge, Chester, charge! 

(5) Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State! 

Sail on, O Union, strong and great! 

(6) Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. 

(7) W’en you see a man in woe. 

Walk right up and say “Hullo!” 

6. Practice your school or class yell. Aim to terrify your opponents by 
the volume of sound, without screeching or making yourself hoarse by 
tightening the throat muscles. Relax. 

7. Call to some one at a distance, Hel-lo, Hel-lo, Hel-lo. 

8. Practice train calling: This train for Philadelphia, Harrisburg, 
Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and the West. All aboard! 

9. Practice with rising, falling, and circumflex inflection and in a 
monotone e, d, d, 6, o, do and one, three, five, nine. 

10. Count one, two, three, four, five, emphasizing in turn each number as 
in speech. 

PARLIAMENTAR Y PRACTICE 
Manuals 

This chapter gives only the elements of parliamentary practice. 
The attempt is to cover the points needed in the school club or 
society. For details consult Robert’s Rules of Order, Gregg’s 
Parliamentary Law, or Gaines’s The New Cushing’s Manual. 
These authorities differ on some points, because practice varies 
somewhat. The method of electing a temporary chairman is an 
example. As the wording of motions varies also, it is not neces¬ 
sary to memorize the exact words of this chapter or of any manual. 

Temporary Organization 

When individuals call together a group of people for just one 
meeting by newspaper notice, posters, or other announcement, a 
temporary organization must be effected for the orderly trans¬ 
action of business. A member may rise and say, “The meeting 
will please come to order. I nominate Mr. A as chairman. Those 
in favor of Mr. A acting as chairman say aye. Those opposed 
say no.” If a majority vote aye, the member declares Mr. A 


APPENDIX 567 

elected and asks him to take the chair. If Mr. A is defeated, 
the member asks for another nomination. 

Instead, a member may rise and say, ‘‘The meeting will please 
come to order. Will some one nominate a chairman?’’ A nom¬ 
ination does not need a second. When the nominations have 
been made, the member calls for ayes and noes on those nom¬ 
inated until some one receives a majority. If Mr. A receives a 
majority, the member declares Mr. A elected. If Mr. A does 
not receive a majority, the member calls for the ayes and noes 
on Mr. B. 

The chairman elect may briefly thank the members for the 
honor and then say, “Nominations for secretary are now in 
order.” The secretary may be elected in the manner just ex¬ 
plained, by ballot, by show of hands, or by standing vote. 

The chairman may then state the object of the meeting or 
ask for a statement of the object of the meeting, and call for the 
transaction of business by saying, “What is the pleasure of the 
assembly?” br “What business is to come before the meeting?” 

Permanent Organization 
First Meeting 

1. A temporary chairman and a temporary secretary are 
elected in the manner explained in the preceding paragraphs. 

2. Some one may state the object of the meeting or move that 
a permanent organization be formed. 

3. A motion is made to appoint a committee on constitution 
and by-laws. The motion may state the number to be appointed. 
The chairman appoints the committee at the time or at a later 
time. Or the motion may name the members of the committee. 

Second Meeting 

1. The meeting is called to order. The minutes are read. The 
chairman says, “You have heard the minutes. Are there any 
corrections?” After a pause he says, ‘ If there are no corrections, 
the minutes stand approved as read.” Corrections are generally 


568 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


adopted by common consent. On an important question of 
fact a vote may be necessary. 

2. The committee on constitution and by-laws reports its work 
complete and hands a copy to the secretary. 

3. A member moves that the constitution and by-laws be 
adopted. 

4. The chairman asks the secretary to read the constitution 
and by-laws one article at a time. After each article is read, he 
asks whether there are any amendments. If an amendment is 
offered, it is discussed and voted on. After the reading he says, 
^‘The entire constitution has been read and is open to amendment.” 

5. The president calls for a vote on the adoption of the consti¬ 
tution and by-laws as amended. 

6. If the constitution and by-laws are adopted, permanent 
officers are elected. 

7. The meeting is open for the transaction of business. 


Choice of Officers 
Nominations 

1. Nominations may be made from the floor or by a nominating 
committee. By the second method other nominations are in 
order after the nominating committee has reported. 

2. A member says, “I nominate Mr. A.” The chair says, 
^‘Mr. A has been nominated,” and writes his name on the black¬ 
board. 

3. The chairman may use his judgment about accepting a decli¬ 
nation or call for a vote of the assembly on it. 

4. A nomination does not need seconding. 

5. If the motion to close nominations is seconded and carried, 
further nominations are shut off. 

6. Without a motion, if there are no further nominations, the 
chairman may declare the nominations closed and say, “You may 
prepare your ballots.” 

7. One who makes or seconds a nomination may at that time 
speak of the fitness of the candidate. 


APPENDIX 


569 


Election 

1. To save time, a standing or a show-of-hands vote is some¬ 
times permissible. The candidates by these methods are voted 
on in the order of nomination. 

2. Commonly election by secret ballot is required by the 
constitution. 

3. A member may vote for one who was not nominated. 

4. Unless the constitution or a standing rule provides other¬ 
wise, a majority is necessary to elect. 

5. If no candidate receives a majority on the first ballot, the 
members ballot again. 

6. On the second and succeeding ballots it is permissible to 
vote against the candidate one nominated. 

7. By motion the one receiving the fewest votes may be elimi¬ 
nated after each ballot. 

8. If there is but one candidate, a member may rise and say, 
“1 move that the secretary cast one ballot for Mr. X for treasurer.” 
If there is no objection to the motion, the assembly proceeds to 
vote on it. If the motion is carried, the secretary writes the 
ballot, rises, and says, ^‘Mr. Chairman, Mr. X receives one vote 
for the office of treasurer, and there is no vote for any other 
candidate.” The chairman then declares Mr. X elected. 

Constitution and By-Laws 

The constitution contains the most important and permanent 
rules of the society. The by-laws are rules somewhat less impor¬ 
tant and permanent than those included in the constitution. 

The constitution commonly includes: 

1. The name and purpose of the organization 

2. Qualifications for membership and method of admission to the society 

3. Time and manner of electing officers, and duties of each officer 

4. Appointment and duties of standing committees 

5. Time and place of meetings 

6. Method of amending the constitution 

The by-laws may include: 

1. Attendance necessary for a quorum 

2. The work on parliamentary practice accepted as authority 


570 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


3. Fees and dues 

4. Order of business 

5. Method of amending the by-laws 

The by-laws may contain also details about membership, 
officers, meetings, fines, and standing committees. There is no 
sharp line between constitution matter and by-law matter. 

The order of business should be somewhat like this: 

1. Roll call 

2. Reading and adoption of minutes 

3. Reports of standing committees 

4. Reports of special committees 

5. Unfinished business 

6. New business 

7. Program or speaker 

8. Adjournment 

Rights and Duties of Members and Officers 
Chairman or President 

1. The chairman calls the meeting to order at the appointed 
time, announces the business to be transacted, announces the 
result of a vote, decides points of order, and preserves order in 
the meeting. 

2. When a motion is made and seconded, the chairman says, 
^Tt has been moved and seconded that this club challenge the 
Lincoln Club to a joint debate. Are there any remarks on the 
motion?’’ or ^Ts there any discussion?” He should be careful 
to use the exact words of the maker of the motion and may ask 
the secretary fco read the motion. The chairman may require 
the maker of a motion to hand it in writing to the secretary. 
When, after some discussion, no member rises to debate, the chair¬ 
man says, ‘^Are there any further remarks? If not, are you ready 
for the question?” If there is no reply or if members call out 
‘‘Question!” he says, “It has been moved and seconded that this 
club challenge the Lincoln Club to a joint debate. Those in favor 
say aye. Those opposed say no. The motion is carried (or lost).” 
If the chairman is in doubt, he says, “Those in favor of the motion 
will rise.” After the count, he says, “You may be seated. Those 


APPENDIX 


571 


opposed will rise.’^ After a voice vote any member may call for 
a standing or show-of-hands vote by saying, ‘'Mr. Chairman, 
I call for a division.’’ 

3. The president sits except when stating a motion, putting 
a question to vote, announcing the result of a vote, and speaking 
upon a question of order. 

4. To obtain the floor a member rises and says, “Mister Chair¬ 
man” (or “Madam Chairman”). The chairman says “Mr. X.” 
When a number wish to obtain the floor at the same time, the 
chairman recognizes first: 

(1) The maker of the motion if he has not spoken 

(2) A member on the opposite side from the one who has just 
spoken 

(3) One who hasn’t spoken on the question 

(4) One who seldom rises to speak 

In other cases he gives the floor to the one who first addresses 
the chair. If a member stands while another is speaking to make 
sure of obtaining the floor, raises his hand instead of addressing 
the chair, or otherwise makes himself objectionable, the chairman 
should not recognize him. 

5. The chairman should always call for a second to a motion 
by saying, “Is the motion seconded?” or “Is there a second to 
the motion?” and declare the motion lost for want of a second 
if there is no response. A second, however, is in order even after 
this announcement. The seconder of a motion does not need to 
rise or obtain the floor. 

6. The chairman should warn a member who is not speaking 
on the question, and if he does not then keep to the point deprive 
him of the floor. 

7. If the chairman wishes to debate a question, he should call 
to the chair the vice president, the secretary, or another member, 
take a seat in the assembly, and speak only when recognized by 
the chair. He should likewise call a member to the chair to put 
a motion which refers to the chairman. 

8. The chairman may vote when the voting is by ballot and in 
other cases when his vote would defeat the motion by making a 


572 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


tie or carry it by breaking a tie. For example, if the vote on a 
motion is 8 to 7, the chairman may vote no, thus making a tie and 
defeating the motion. 

9. By unanimous consent the chairman may take any action 
that does not violate the constitution or by-laws. He says, ‘Tf 
there are no objections, the next meeting will be held at 3:15 
instead of 3:30.” After a pause he says, ‘Tt is so ordered.” If 
objection is raised, a motion is necessary. 

10. The chairman should be prompt and decisive in his rulings, 
should not himself waste time, and should not permit members 
to delay the business to be transacted. 

11. The chairman refers to himself as “the chair” or uses a 
pronoun of the third person. 

Vice President 

The vice president should render valuable aid to the president 
and be ready to take the president's place at any time. 

Secretary 

1. The secretary should keep an accurate record of everything 
that is done by a meeting. The minutes should include the kind 
of meeting, name of body, time of meeting, name of chairman, 
motions lost as well as motions passed, names of members ap¬ 
pointed to committees, important remarks, and the like. 

2. He notifies members of appointment on committees and 
of regular or special meetings. 

3. He assists the president by counting in a division, by reading 
the exact wording of a motion, or by giving information about 
unfinished business or action already taken by the meeting. 

4. He is custodian of the constitution, by-laws, minutes, and 
correspondence. 

5. He carries on correspondence and reports to the society, 
calls the roll and keeps a record of the attendance, and in the 
absence of the president and vice president calls the meeting to 
order. 



APPENDIX 573 

Treasurer 

1. The treasurer should keep in ink a detailed record of all 
sums received and expended and be ready at any meeting to 
make a complete report. The treasurer’s book should be clear 
to any member who may be called upon to audit it. 

2. He should give receipts for dues and assessments and secure 
a receipt when money is paid out. 

3. The by-laws or constitution should specify how bills are 
to be paid. In many organizations the rule is that money is to 
be paid out only after it has been voted by the society. 

Committees 

1. The constitution or by-laws may provide for the appoint¬ 
ment of an executive committee, a program committee, a member¬ 
ship committee, a publicity committee, a refreshment committee, 
and the like. These are standing committees with a fixed term 
of ofl&ce. A special committee is appointed for a particular task. 
For example, the club may authorize the appointment of a com¬ 
mittee to devise a plan for raising funds for the purchase of medals 
to be presented. Such a committee ceases to exist when it has 
done its work and reported to the society. The society either 
takes no action on a committee report or votes to adopt it. If 
the committee recommends a public mock trial to raise money, 
a vote to adopt the report means that the mock trial is to be held. 

2. Committees are commonly appointed by the presiding officer. 
The first member named is the temporary chairman unless another 
is specified. If no chairman is named, the committee may elect 
its own chairman. 

3. A committee meets at the call of the chairman. A majority 
of a committee constitute a quorum. 

Rules of Debate 

1. Do not refer to a member by name. Say “the preceding 
speaker,” “the chair,” “the secretary.” 

2. Don’t rise to speak a second time unless everybody has 
had an opportunity to speak. 


574 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


3. Most societies have a rule which limits each member to two 
speeches on a motion and limits a speech to ten minutes. 

4. Address your remarks to the chairman and stick to the 
question. 

5. Speak only once on a question of order. 

6. A member may rise to debate up to the time that the neg¬ 
ative vote is called for. 

7. After a member has obtained the floor, he may hold it 
except for the question of consideration, a point of order, a call for 
the order of the day, a question of privilege, or a call to enter 
on the minutes a motion to reconsider. 

Precedence of Motions 
Privileged Motions 

Fix time for next meeting A, D?, R (Symbols are explained on 
the following page.) 

Adjourn (if next meeting time has been fixed) r 
Take a recess A?, r 

Question of privilege D, A, -F?, T, P, C, R 
Call for the order of the day r, -S, -F, R 

Subsidiary Motions 

Objection to consideration of question f, -F, -S, R 
Lay on the table r, R? 

Previous question f, r, R? 

Postpone to a certain time r, D?, A?, R 

Commit D+, A, r, R 

Amend an amendment D, R 

Amend D, A, T, R. Postpone indefinitely D+, R 

Main motion or motion to repeal D, A, P, C, T, R 

1. Amend and postpone indefinitely are of the same rank. 
Neither yields to the other. 

2. The question mark after a symbol indicates that there are 
exceptions to the general statement. These exceptions are given 
in the discussion of the motions on pages 576-581. 


APPENDIX 


575 


3. A motion in this table yields to any motion above it. For 
example, if a motion is before the house, an amendment is made 
and seconded, and a motion to adjourn is made and seconded, 
the motion to adjourn is acted on first. If it is lost, the amend¬ 
ment is discussed and voted on. If the amendment is carried, 
the motion as amended is discussed and voted on. 

Incidental Motions 

Suspend the rules f 

Point of order -F, -S 

Appeal from the decision of the chair T, D?, R 

Withdraw a motion R 

Any incidental motion may be applied to any other motion and 
is acted upon before the motion to which it is applied. 

Meaning of Symbols 

A—Aniendable. 

T)—Debatable. Previous question applicable. 

DH—Opens whole question for debate. Previous question 
apphcable. 

f—Two-thirds vote necessary. 

-S—Second not required. 

-F—In order when another has the fioor. 

R—May be reconsidered. 

T—May be laid on the table. 

C—May be referred to a committee. 

P—May be postponed definitely or indefinitely. 

r —Renewable after other business. 

Common Motions Classified According to Use 

Postpone action 

1. Lay on the table 

2. Postpone to a certain time 
Defeat the question 

1. Objection to consideration 

2. Postpone indefinitely 


576 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


3. Lay on the table 
Stop debate 

1. Previous question 
Change the motion 

1. Amend 
Close a meeting 

1. Adjourn 

Main Motion and Motion to Repeal 

^‘1 move that this society hold a declamation contest/^ 

1. A main motion is not in order if any other business is before 
the meeting. 

2. If the motion is defeated, it may not be introduced again 
at the same session. 

Postpone Indefinitely 

move that the question be postponed indefinitely.^’ 

1. When a motion is postponed indefinitely, it is really de¬ 
feated, because it may not be considered again during the session. 

2. Sometimes leaders use this motion to find out how many 
are opposed to the original motion. 

Amend 

move to amend the motion by striking out declamation 
and inserting the word speaking.” 

1. To amend means to change. The wording of the motion 
is changed by an amendment. 

2. A change in the motion may be made by adding, subtract¬ 
ing, substituting, or dividing. 

3. By unanimous consent a maker may change his motion 
without moving to amend. 

4. An amendment may be substituted for the entire motion 
originally proposed. 

5. The chairman should rule a silly amendment out of order. 

6. An amendment must keep to the question but may be 
hostile to it. An amendment to add not or eliminate not should 
be ruled out of order. 


APPENDIX 


577 


7. When an amendment is laid on the table, it takes with it 
the original question. 

Amend an Amendment 

move to amend the amendment by inserting the word 
extemporaneous before speaking.’^ 

1. The amendment to the amendment is acted on before the 
amendment or original motion. To illustrate, after discussion a 
vote is taken on inserting extemporaneous. If the meeting votes 
to change the amendment, the amendment as amended, that the 
words extemporaneous speaking be substituted for the word declama¬ 
tion j is discussed and voted on. If the amendment as amended 
is lost, the original motion, that the club hold a declamation 
contest, is discussed and voted on. 

2. Distinguish between changing an amendment and changing 
the original motion. ^T move to amend the amendment by 
inserting the words on December 20 after contest” is out of order 
because the change desired is a second amendment, which is in 
order after the first amendment has been disposed of. 

Commit 

“I move that the matter be referred to a committee.’^ 

move to refer the question to the executive committee.’^ 

1. The motion is useful when further investigation is desirable. 

2. Amendments may change the size or selection of the com¬ 
mittee or the time for its report. 

3. When the motion does not specify, it is usually understood 
that the chairman is authorized to appoint a committee of three 
members. 

Postpone to a Certain Time 

'T move that this question be postponed until the next meeting.'' 

1. The motion gives time for consideration. 

2. At the time set the matter comes up under old business or 
may be called up as an order of the day. 

3. Debate must concern the wisdom of the postponement. 

4. A change in the time at which the matter is to be considered 
is the only amendment in order. 


578 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Previous Question 

^‘1 move the previous question/^ 

After a second to the motion the chairman says, “The previous 
question has been called for. Shall debate now be closed?” 

1. The motion stops debate and requires a vote on the original 
question. 

2. If a main motion and an amendment are before the house, 
the previous question unhmited requires a vote on both the amend¬ 
ment and the main motion without further debate. To limit the 
closing of debate to the amendment, the motion should be, “I 
move the previous question on the amendment.” 

3. The motion to limit debate, like the previous question, 
requires a two-thirds vote. 

4. It may be reconsidered if not partly executed. 

Lay on the Table 

“I move that the question be laid on the table.” 

1. A motion laid on the table is really lost unless a majority 
vote to take it from the table. Hence the motion is used both to 
delay action and to defeat a motion. 

2. If the motion to lay on the table carries, it may not be 
reconsidered. 

Objection to Consideration of Question 

“I object to the consideration of this question.” 

1. This motion is used to dispose of improper motions Avith- 
out debate. 

2. The objection is in order only before the question has been 
debated. 

Suspension of Rules 

“I move to suspend the rule which prevents a member from 
speaking three times on a motion and move also that a member 
be permitted to speak as often as he wishes on this question.” 

1. To suspend the rules is to permit action contrary to the 
standing rules of the club or to parliamentary practice. The 
constitution is never suspended. The by-laws may be set aside 


APPENDIX 


579 


only if they contain the statement that certain sections may be 
suspended. 

Withdrawal of a Motion 

move that the consent of the meeting be granted for the 
v/ithdrawal of the motion.” 

Before a motion has been stated by the chairman, the maker 
has the privilege of withdrawing it. After it has been stated by 
the chair, he may withdraw it only by unanimous consent or 
on motion to withdraw. 

Question of Order 
rise to a point of order.” 

Chairman. “State your point of order.” 

“My point of order is that parliamentary rules are being 
violated because a majority is necessary for election.” 

Chairman. “Your point of order is well taken. Prepare your 
ballots again.” 

1. A point of order may properly be raised if the chairman 
permits a violation of the constitution, by-laws, or parliamentary 
law. 

2. If a member is disorderly or discourteous in debate, the 
chairman names him, gives him an opportunity to explain his 
actions, and then requires him to withdraw from the room. The 
assembly then decides to overlook the offense or to punish the 
member by a reprimand, fine, or expulsion. 

Appeal from the Decision of the Chair 

“I appeal from the decision of the chair.” 

Chairman. “Shall the decision of the chair stand as the judg¬ 
ment of the assembly?” 

1. The chairman may state the reasons for his decision without 
leaving the chair. 

2. Unless a vote is being taken, an appeal should be made 
at the time of the chairman’s decision of the point of order. 

3. A member may speak but once. 

4. If the chair is overruled, he takes the action approved by 
the assembly. 


580 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Call for the Order of the Day 
call for the order of the day.’^ 

Sometimes an assembly decides to consider a matter at a 
definite time. When that hour arrives, other business gives way 
if the call for the order of the day is approved by unanimous 
consent or carried. 

Question of Privilege 

rise to a question of privilege.^’ 

Chairman. ^‘State your question of privilege.’^ 

“1 move that a member be appointed to stop the noise outside.” 

1. Privileged questions relate to the rights of the meeting and 
of individual members. Examples are disorder, poor ventilation, 
and lack of chairs, heat, or light. 

2. The chairman decides (subject to appeal) whether the ques¬ 
tion is really a question of privilege. 

3. If immediate action is required, the maker may interrupt 
a member speaking. 

Take a Recess 

“1 move that we take a recess of ten minutes.” 

1. The only amendment in order is one that changes the length 
of the recess. 

2. A quorum is not necessary for action on this motion. 

3. After the recess business is resumed at the point at which 
it was interrupted. 

Adjourn 

move we adjourn.” 

1. A quorum is not necessary for a vote on adjournment. 

2. If the motion to adjourn also fixes the time of the next 
meeting (“I move we adjourn to meet on Thursday at three 
o’clock”), the rules for a main motion apply. 

3. The motion is not in order while a member is speaking or 
while a vote is being taken. 

Fix Time or Place for Next Meeting 

^T move that the next meeting be held on December 22 at 
3 P.M.” 


APPENDIX 


581 


1. This motion is of highest rank, because, if the constitution 
and by-laws do not specify the regular meeting place and time 
of the body, there must be every opportunity during a meeting 
to set the time of the next one. 

2. It is debatable if no other question is before the meeting. 

Reconsider 

The details about the motions to reconsider are complicated. 
Only the main facts about the unprivileged form, which is in 
common use, are given. 

1. If the motion is carried, the original question is again before 
the assembly for consideration. 

2. The motion must be made by one who voted with the 
majority. 

3. The motion must be made at the meeting on which the 
original vote was taken or at the following meeting. 

Session and Meeting 

A session is a meeting or series of meetings in which there is no 
break in the business transacted. The business is taken up at 
the new meeting without the minutes or a call for old business. 
A session of Congress lasts for months. In the ordinary society 
each meeting is a session. 

Use and Abuse of Parliamentary Motions 

In Lowry^s Washington Close-ups, the chapter headed From 
the House Gallery shows how intelligent men sometimes waste 
time in parliamentary wrangling. In a meeting motions should 
never be introduced to confuse the chairman or delay business. 
The purpose of parliamentary law is to secure a speedy expression 
of the will of the majority. School practice in handling motions 
is Hke finger exercises in music or voice and body exercises in 
speaking. No speaker practices voice exercises before an audience. 
He does, however, use his voice. Likewise practice in presiding 
and making motions prepares a person to take part intelligently 
in the transaction of business in any meeting. 


582 


ENGLISH IN ACTION 


Practice 

1. First, effect a temporary organization. Let A move that the class 
adopt a uniform for all members, B amend the motion by specifying the 
kind of uniform, and C amend the amendment with a change in the 
uniform. 

2. Let D move that the class organize a literary club, E amend the 
motion by substituting hook for literary, F move the previous question 
on the amendment, and G move to lay on the table. 

3. Let H move that the class hold a party or a picnic, I amend by 
specifying the time, J move to postpone the question to the next recita¬ 
tion, K move to refer the matter to a committee, L rise to a question of 
privilege. 

4. Let others make main motions and apply the subsidiary, privileged, 
and incidental motions. 


INDEX 


A, an, 466 

Abbreviations, 88, 90, 122, 123, 126, 
131, 163, 213, 267 
Absolute construction, 434 
Abstract words, 64, 529, 530 
Accent, 549 

Accuracy, 124, 210, 238, 263, 279, 
306, 311, 320 
Accusative case, 435, 436 
Action, 29, 328, 345, 364, 365 
Action-plot, 360, 361 
Active voice, 273, 458 
Address, nominative of, 434, 489 
Address, of letter, 121, 123; on en¬ 
velope, 131, 132 

Addresses and dates, punctuation of, 
490 

Adjective, 328, 433, 465-467 
Adjective clause, 440-443 
Adjunct accusative, 435 
Adonais, 401 

Adverb, 328, 423, 433, 465-467 
Adverb clause, 440-443, 491 
Adverbial objective, 435, 440 
Advertising, 297-299 
Agreement of verb with subject, 451- 
453; of predicate nominative with 
subject, 450; of pronoun with ante¬ 
cedent, 453-455 

Aim in writing, 97; in speaking, 53, 
54 

Alliteration, 393, 394, 429 
Almanacs, 92 

Amateur Gentleman, The, 182 

American Speech Week Number, 296 

Amphibrach, 387 

Analogy, false, 245 

Analysis of sentences, 199, 437, 438; 

of question, 216-218, 236 
Anapest, 386, 387, 389, 400 
Ancient History, 204 
And, 452; overuse of, 9, 61, 474 
Antecedent of pronoun, 453-455, 468 
Antithesis, 556, 557 
Antonyms, 94 


Anybody, 452 
Any one, 452 

Apology, 63; letter of, 155 
Apostrophe, 499, 506 
Apostrophe, figure, 555 
Appositive, 331, 332, 434, 436, 440, 
450, 476, 489, 497 
April, 409 

Argument, 13, 222-260 
Arnold, Matthew, 208 
Arrangement, sentence, 471-482; 
paragraph, 80, 83; of a composi¬ 
tion, 106, 107; in explanation, 168, 
176; in argument, 238, 239, 257; 
of a news story, 272; in narration, 
305; in description, 326-328; of a 
short story, 364, 365 
Arsenal Cannon, The, 265 
Article, 267, 465, 466 
As, 440, 456, 492, 496 
Asking, verbs of, with two objects, 435 
Asking for information, 134 
Assonance, 393, 394 
Athletes in the Life Table, 275 
Atmosphere, 345, 346, 357, 365 
Attention, 63 

Attribute. See Predicate adjective and 
Predicate nominative 
Audience sense, 52 
Autobiography, Franklin’s, 85 

Backgrounds, social, 94, 427 
Ballad, 396-398 
Battle of Snakes, The, 307 
Be, 450 

Beginning. See Introduction 
Bertha, 338 
Bible, 557 

Bicycle Ride, A, 479 
Biography, 92, 303-305 
Blank verse, 393 
Block style, 131 

Boarding House Mouse, 317-319 
Body of letter, 124-127, 148, 149; of 
argument, 226 


583 


584 


INDEX 


Boloney, 286 

Books, 7; reference, 92, 94; contain¬ 
ing debate material, 222, 223; for 
school journalists, 293; about 
story-writing, 378, 379; of short 
stories, 379, 380; about words, 527; 
on parliamentary practice, 566 
Bow, 66 

Bowers, C. G., 170 
Brackets, 499 
Breathing, 60, 563, 565 
Brevity. See Terseness 
Brief, 227-236 

Brief History of Cotton, 102, 103 
Brisbane, Arthur, 274 
Browning, Robert, 388, 392, 395, 415, 
426 

Brutus, 178, 179 
Bryan, W. J., 245 
Bryan, W. L., 19 
Bryant, W. C., 445 
Building, word, 532-536 
Building or structure, 331 
Burick, Leopold, 282 
Burns, Robert, 416, 427, 558 
Business, talking, 13 
Business letter, 119-146 
But, use of, 440, 466, 491 
By-laws, 567-570 

Byron, G. G., 392, 401, 557, 558, 559 

Can, could, 461 
Can, may, 461 
Canceling words, 70 
Capitalization, 483-488, 506; com¬ 
position title, 69, 485; outline, 99- 
103, 486; letter, 124, 127, 486 
Card catalog, 91 
Carlyle, Thomas, 206 
Carpentry for boys, 82 
Case, 434-437; nominative, 434; ob¬ 
jective, 435, 436; accusative and 
dative, 435, 436; possessive or geni¬ 
tive, 436; of pronouns, 450, 451 
Cask of Amontillado, The, 365 
Catalectic verse, 389 
Catalog, card, 91 
Cause, 169; mistaking the, 245 
Central Tom Thumb Times, 296 
Chairman, 66, 570-572 
Character, 344, 345, 346, 348, 349, 
350, 361, 362 

Character sketch, 178, 179 
Charge of the Light Brigade, The, 388 


Chatham, W. P., 416 
Cheap, 467 
Childe Harold, 401 
Claire Ambler, 9, 183, 184 
Class paper, 297 

Clauses, 433; principal, 434, 446; 
subordinate, 433, 434, 462; noun, 
439-443; adjective, 440-443; ad¬ 
verb, 440-443, 491; restrictive and 
non-restrictive, 491-495 
Clear 467 

Clearness, 108, 142, 210, 263, 267, 
279; in speaking, 52,53; in a letter, 
124, 134; in explanation, 166, 167, 
168, 176; in debate, 216, 257; sen¬ 
tence, 272, 490; in narration, 313, 
366, 367 
Cliches, 402 

Climax, sentence, 471, 472; in speech, 
59; of a paragraph, 84; in debate, 
239, 257; in narration, 305; in a 
short story, 358; in reading, 425, 
428 

Clincher sentence, 78, 79, 82 
Close punctuation, 120-122 
Coachman, The, 327 
Cognate object, 435 
Coherence, paragraph, 80; in a com¬ 
position, 106; in debate, 238, 239 
Coleridge, S. T., 39, 40, 41, 392, 394, 
395, 427, 558 
Collection letter, 136, 137 
Collective nouns, 453 
Colloquial English, 365, 450, 454 
Colon, 124, 496 
Color, local, 357 

Comma, 228, 488-495; in letter, 119, 
120, 121, 122, 123, 127, 146, 147 
Comma blunder, 212, 446-449 
Committees, 568, 573, 577 
Community, our, 103 
Comparative degree, 465 
Comparison, 465 

Comparisons, 166, 169, 306, 320-324, 
328, 403, 404, 469 

Complements. See Object of verb, 
Predicate nominative. Predicate ad¬ 
jective, Predicate objective 
Completeness, 100, 124, 167, 213 
Complex-complex sentences, 441 
Complex sentences, 273, 331, 439- 
443, 474-476; noun clauses, 439- 
443; adjective clauses, 440-443; 
adverb clauses, 440-443; com- 


INDEX 


585 


pound-complex and complex-com¬ 
plex, 441 

Compliment, 12, 13 
Complimentary close, 127, 146-148, 
490 

Composition, building a, 96-118 
Compound-complex sentences, 441 
Compound nouns, 507, 508 
Compound personal pronouns, 455- 
457 

Compound sentences, 273, 434; 

punctuated, 491, 495 
Compound subject, 452 
Compression, 367 
Conciseness. See Terseness 
Conclusion, of composition, 104, 109, 
111-113, 178, 228, 305; of speech, 
59; of outline, 98; of letter, 125, 
139, 140; of brief, 228; of debate, 
243, 249; of description, 328; of 
short story, 358 

Concrete words, 63, 64, 239, 240, 529, 
530 

Condition contrary to fact, 459 
Condolence, letter of, 159 
Conflict. See Struggle 
Congratulation, letter of, 158 
Congratulations, 291 
Conjunction, 267, 469; coordinate, 
434; subordinate, 440; confusion 
with preposition, 467 
Conjunctive adverb. See Subordi¬ 
nate conjunction 
Conklin, George, 84, 473 
Connectives, sentence, 80-83, 168; 
classification of, 81; paragraph, 83, 
107, 108; in narration, 315; in 
description, 328 
Consonants, 540-545 
Constancy Is More than Consistency, 
173, 174 

Constitution, 567, 570 
Contractions, 506 
Contradiction in conversation, 13 
Contrast, 169, 306, 350, 367, 419, 428, 
429, 556, 557 

Contrasting expressions, punctuation 
of, 490 

Conversation, 3-19, 52, 87, 198, 365, 
366, 419 
Conviction, 256 
Coordinate conjunctions, 434 
Correspondence Manual, 126 
Could, can, 461 


Couplet, 395, 396 

Courtesy, 10, 17, 69, 124, 126, 135, 
257; letters of, 157 
Cox, James, 405 
Crane, Frank, 173 

Criticism, of speech, 57, 64; of book, 
181 

Dactyl, 387, 388, 389 
Dash, 497, 498 

Dates and addresses, punctuation of, 
490 

Dative case, 435, 436 
Debate, 222-260; questions, 257- 
260; rules of, 573, 574 
Deep, 467 

Definition, 170-172, 226, 228, 242, 
525 

Delivery, 241 

de Maupassant, Guy, 350, 367 
Dependent. See Subordinate 
Description, 76, 106, 303, 320-341, 
350, 362 

Details, in description, 327, 333; in 
explanation, 169, 170 
Development, paragraph, 75, 76 
Diagram, 166, 168, 438 
Dialog, 365-367, 425, 426, 428 
Dial telephone, how to use, 14, 15 
Dickens, Charles, 338, 558 
Dictation, 517, 518 
Diction. See Words 
Dictionaries, 92 

Dictionary, 199, 428, 526-528, 538 
Dimeter, 382 
Diphthongs, 540, 541 
Disappearance of Johann Gerhardt, 
The, 360, 361 

Discussion, informal, 151-153 
Dish Washing, 101 
Division of words, 70, 71 
Double negative, 466 

Each, 452 

Earnestness, 52, 53, 243 

Editorial, 262, 263, 274-276, 289-292 

Effect, 169, 245 

Effective words, 528-532 

Ei and ie, 507 

Either, 452 

Election, 569 

Electrical Engineering, 192-195 
Elegy in a Country Churchyard, 44 
Eliot, Charles, 4, 78, 79 


586 


INDEX 


Eliot, George, 410, 559 
Elliptical sentences, 447 
Emerson, R. W., 76, 77, 88 
Emphasis, sentence, 272, 273; in 
paragraph, 84-86; in composition, 
109, 111, 176; in debate, 239, 257 
Emphasis in reading and speaking, 
62, 414, 417, 418-422, 424, 426 
Enchanted Willows, 406 
Encyclopedias, 92 
End. See Conclusion 
Enunciation, 5, 6, 15, 53, 537-550 
Envelope, how addressed, 131, 132; 
quality, 129 

Essay, informal or familiar, 185-191, 
278 311 

Eve of St. Agnes, The, 401 
Every, everybody, every one, 452, 454 
Examinations, 211-221; Regents, 
115-118, 217, 218 
Examples, 169 
Exclamation point, 69, 497 
Exclamatory sentences, 479 
Experience, how to tell, 305, 308 
Explanation (or exposition), 106, 165- 
191, 256, 303, 320, 321, 364, 365 
Extemporaneous speaking, 49-68, 
241 

Eyes, 12, 52, 426 

Faces, 338, 339 
Facts, 176-178, 227, 228, 282 
Faerie Queene, 401 
Fallacies, 244-248 
Fast, 467 

Feature, 263, 267, 270, 282, 284 
Feel, 467 

Feeling, 137, 414-416, 424, 428 
Feet, 50, 51 

Feet, metrical, 382-392, 408 
Feminine ending, 389 
Figures of speech, 201, 551-560; in 
description, 321-324, 328 
Fine, 273, 328 
Finkbiner, Marjorie, 406 
First Real Doll, Her, 320 
Fitzgerald, Edward, 399 
Folding a letter, 129, 130 
Foot, 382 
For, 228, 492 

Force, 417. See Emphasis 
Formal notes, 162-164 
Fosdick, Harry Emerson, 167 
Fox, Edith, 187 


Frank, Grace, 183 
Franklin, Benjamin, 85 
Freeman, Mary W., 364 
Freeman, Mildred, 370 
Free verse, 408-411 
French and English Students Corre¬ 
spond, 265 

Fried Frogs’ Eggs, 308, 309 
Friendly letter, 146-164 
From, than, 467 
Frosty Crescent, 405 
Full Dress, 329, 330 
Fundamental image, 326 
Future tense. See Shall, will 

Galsworthy, John, 18 
Generalization, hasty, 244, 245 
Genitive case, 436 
Gerund, 443, 444, 450 
Gesture, 62 

Gibbs, Anthony, 336, 337 
Giving to Beggars, 109-111 
Gold Brick, The, 364 
Gold Bug, The, 364 
Golden Rule, The, 167 
Goldsmith, Oliver, 38, 392, 556 
Gossip, 410 

Grammar, parts of the sentence, 433- 
445; case of pronouns, 450-451; 
verb and subject, 451-453; pro¬ 
noun and antecedent, 453-455; 
conipound personal pronoun and 
relative pronoun, 455-457; principal 
parts of verbs, 458; sit, set, lie, lay, 
rise, raise, 458, 459; subjunctive 
mood, 459; tense, 459-462; shall, 
will, should, would, 462-465; adjec¬ 
tives and adverbs, 465-467; wrong 
part of speech, 467, 468; syntacti¬ 
cal redundance, 468; incorrect 
omissions, 469-470 
Gray, Thomas, 44, 392, 394, 427, 559 
Greek prefixes and roots, 535 
Grudges, 290 

Habits, 4, 50 

Hackneyed phrases, 126, 127, 148, 
209, 273, 274, 282, 402 
Half-sentence, 214, 446-449 
Halleck, Fitz-Greene, 427, 557 
Halliburton, Richard, 87 
Hands, 50, 51 

Handwriting, 69-74, 213, 214 
Hard, 467 


INDEX 


587 


Hardly, 466 

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 88, 558 

Hazlitt, Henry, 206 

Heading of letter, 121-123, 146-148 

Headlines, 266-269, 298 

Hearn, Lafcadio, 205 

Heptameter, 383 

Her World, 183 

Heroes and Hero Worship, 206 

Hexameter, 382 

Hibben, J. G., 19 

High, 467 

His, 454 

Holmes, O. W., 61 
Homer, 557 
Homonyms, 509 
Hot-air Furnace, The, 166 
How They Brought the Good News 
From Ghent to Aix, 388 
How to Choose Your Life Work, 28 
How to Make a Double Drop, 167 
How to Make an Attractive Apron, 
168, 169 W 

Humor, 243, 263, 275, 280, 286-289 
Hurry-up Letter, 135 
Huxley, Thomas, 205, 558 
Hyperbole, 557 
Hypercatalectic verse, 389 
Hypermetrical verse, 389 
Hyphen, 69, 70, 507-509 

I Am an American, 408, 409 
Iambus, 382-386, 388, 389, 396, 400, 
401 

Ichabod Crane, 329 
Ideas, 176-178 

If Orville Wright Had Been Discour¬ 
aged, 304 
III, 467 

Illustrations, 59, 63, 64, 167, 168, 201, 
239 

Imagination, 344, 368, 385, 403, 404 
Imperative sentence, 479 
Impressionistic description, 326, 327, 
336-339 

In Flanders Fields, 416 
Inclosures, 130 
Indefinite article. See A, an 
Indention, 69, 99, 129 
Independent clause. See Principal 
clause 

Indianapolis Speedway, The, 60 
Indirect object, 435 
Indirect quotation, 462 


Infinitive, 331, 443, 444, 460; sub¬ 
junctive of, 436, 450; predicate of, 
436 

Inflection, 414, 417, 418, 421, 422- 
424, 426 

Informal essay, 185-191 
Information, letter asking for, 134, 
135 

Ingersoll, Robert, 417 
Ink, 69, 129 
Interest, 63, 104 

International Phonetic Association, 
539-541 

Interrogation point, 69, 497 
Interrogative sentence, 479 
Interview, 284, 285 
Introduction, of composition, 104, 
109, 111-113, 168; of speech, 59; 
of outline, 99; of letter, 124, 139; 
letter of, 156; of debate, 226, 227, 
236-238, 242; of brief, 228-232; 
of narration, 305; of short story, 
364, 365 

Invader, The, 187-190 
Inverted order, 199, 450 
Invitation, 162-164 
Irony, 557 

Irving, Washington, 327, 418, 557, 
558 

l s. See Be 

Issues, main, 223-226, 228, 236, 238, 
239, 242, 256 

l t, 331 

Jefferson and Hamilton, 170 
Johnson, Samuel, 18 
Johnston, Mary, 184 
Jonson, Ben, 384, 385 
“Journalese,” 273, 274 

Katrina Prepares For The Party, 338 
Keats, John, 385 
Kind, sort, 466 
Kindness, 12 

Kingsley, Charles, 392, 417 

Lady or the Tiger? 364 

Lake reView, 290 

Latin prefixes and roots, 532-534 

Lay, lie, 459 

Lead, 269-272, 279, 282, 284 
Leader, Passes, A, 291 
Lear, Edward, 401 
Legibility, 69-74 



588 


INDEX 


Legislator, letter to, 141 
Letterhead, 121, 122 
Letters, business, 119-146; friendly, 
146-164; to editor, 276, 277, 278 
Library to Be, My, 114, 115 
Lie, lay, 459 
Lieberman, Elias, 408 
Like, as, 467 
Limerick, 400, 401 
Lincoln, Joseph, 559 
Lindbergh Flies Alone, 276 
Listener, the good, 6, 7 
Literary English, 450 
Literary reference books, 92 
Little Curiosity, 309 
Long, 467 

Longfellow, H. W., 388, 392, 394, 
418, 445, 558 
Look, 467 
Loud, 467 

Lounsbury, Thomas, 18 
Lowell, J. R., 41, 392, 418, 558 

Macaulay, T, B., 558 
Machines, 174 
Magazines, 7, 53, 293-296 
Main clause. See Principal clause 
Main issues, 223-226, 228, 236, 238, 
239, 242, 256 

Make-up of newspaper, 261, 262 
Mannerisms, 51 

Manners, in conversation, 10, 12; 
and ethics. 111 

Manuscript, how to prepare, 69-74; 

for publication, 74 
Many a, 452 

Margin, 69; of letter, 102, 131 
Markham, Edwin, 394 
Material, 7, 8, 54, 87-95, 104, 186, 
222, 223, 296, 344, 345, 384, 385 
Matthews, Brander, 367 
May, can, 461 
May, might, 461 
McCrae, John, 416 
Memorizing, 428, 429 
Metaphor, 286, 551-554 
Meter, 381-392 
Metonymy, 555, 556 
Michigan City Lake Front, The, 334 
Might, may, 461 

Milton, John, 179, 180, 207, 392, 557, 
558 

Mining Engineering, 97, 98 
Minutes, secretary’s, 209, 210, 567 


Miss Murdstone, 338 
Mode. See Mood 
Modifiers, 420, 433, 451 
Monometer, 382 
Mood, subjunctive, 459 
Moon Coin, The, 370-376 
Most Exciting Ride 1 Ever Had, The, 
311, 313 

Motions, 574-582 

Motor Life and the Saturday Evening 
Post, 294, 295 
Movement, 367 
Movie, 7; censorship, 231 
Mr. Traver’s First Hunt, 42-44 
My Library To Be, 114, 115 

Names of an Elf, The, 316, 317 
Narration, 76, 106, 303-319, 343-380 
Natural order, 199, 450 
Necklace, The, 350-357, 358, 360, 361, 
362, 364, 366, 367, 368, 369 
Neither, 452 

Neptune Party, A, 315, 316 

Nervousness, 51, 52 

New Plow, The, 409, 410 

New York Sun, 206 

News story, 262-274, 279-281 

Newspaper, 7, 261-278, 278-293 

Nice, 273, 328 

Night letter, 142 

No, yes, 490 

Nobody, no one, 452 

Nominations, 566, 567, 568 

Nominative, predicate, 434, 440, 450; 

of address, 434; of exclamation, 434 
Nominative case, 434, 450 
Nonrestrictive modifiers, 491-495 
Nor, 452, 491 
Not, 490 

Notebook, vocabulary, 525, 526 
Notes, formal, 162-164 
Notes in speaking, 57 
Note-taking, 88, 90 
Noun clauses, 439-443 
Nouns, 328; case, 433-437; collec¬ 
tive, 453; capitalization of proper 
nouns, 483-485 

Object of preposition, 436, 440, 450; 
of verb, 435, 440, 469; indirect, 
435; secondary, 435; retained, 435, 
440; cognate, 435 

Objective, predicate, 435; adverbial, 
435, 440 


INDEX 


589 


Objective case, 435, 436, 450 
Objective complement. See Predicate 
objective 

Observation, 87, 88, 165, 321, 326, 
327, 328, 338, 344, 345, 384 
Obsolete words, 402, 

Old Home, The, 332, 333 
Old Mexican Woman, An, 330 
Omar Khayyam, 399 
Omissions, incorrect, 125, 214, 267, 
468, 469 
One, 452, 454 
On His Blindness, 207 
On Lockerbie Street, 265 
Only, 466 

Onomatopoeia, 394, 395 
Open Mind, An, 292 
Open punctuation, 119, 121, 122 
Optimist, The, 284, 285, 291 
Or, 452, 491 
Oracle, The, 292 

Order, inverted,,^ 199, 450: natural, 
199, 450 

Outlining, 54-56, 97-103, 168, 201, 
428 

Outlook, 84, 85, 174, 338 
Overworked words. See Hackneyed 
words 

Ozymandias of Egypt, 207 

Palmer, G. H., 87 
Paper, 69, 75, 129, 148 
Paradise Lost, 179, 180 
Paragraph, 75-86; newspaper, 272 
Parallel structure, 99, 101 
Parentheses, 497, 499 
Parenthetical expressions, punctua¬ 
tion of, 489, 497 
Parliamentary practice, 566-582 
Part of speech, wrong, 467, 468 
Participle, 331, 332, 434, 443, 444, 
460, 478, 492 
Passive voice, 458 
Past participle, 460 
Past perfect tense, 460 
Past tense, 459, 460 
Pause, 62, 421, 424 
Pearson, Karl, 88 
Penmanship, 69-74, 213, 214 
Pentameter, 382 

Period, in letter, 119, 120, 127; after 
declarative or imperative sentence, 
446, 447, 488; after abbreviation, 
488 


Person, 462 
Person, A, 452 

Personal pronouns, compound, 455- 
457 

Personification, 485, 555 
Persuasion, 59, 60 
Peterson, Paul, 286 
Phrases, 433, 451, 491-495 
Phrasing, 417, 418, 424, 426 
Picture, letter, 129 
Pictures, 199, 280, 303, 305, 306, 
320-339,366,403,404,415, 427, 428 
Pitch, 60, 62, 417, 421, 425, 426 
Planning compositions and speeches, 
54-56, 96-103, 106, 213, 344 
Platform, on the, 65, 66 
Plausibility, 368 
Plot, 344-348, 358-361 
Plural, 499, 510 

Poe, E. A., 364, 365,385,392,394, 395 
Poetry. See Verse' 

Poets, 401, 405 

Point of view, in description, 326; in 
short story, 363, 364 
Pope, Alexander, 38, 395, 559 
Possessive case, how to form, 499- 
501, 505, 506; use, 436, 450 
Postscript, 131 
Posture, 50, 51, 66 
Practice before speaking in public, 57 
Precis, 198-221 

Predicate, 433; of infinitive, 436 
Predicate adjective, 467 
Predicate nominative, 434, 440, 450 
Predicate objective, 435 
Prefixes, 508, 509, 532 
Preposition, 267, 469; object of, 436, 
440, 450; confusion with conjunc¬ 
tion, 467 

Prepositional phrase, 451 
Present perfect tense, 460 
Present tense, 163, 267, 460 
Principal clause, 434, 446 
Principal parts of verbs, 458 
Processes, 174, 175 
Progressive verb phrases, 496 
Promptness, 119 

Pronouns, 423; relative, 440, 455- 
457; case of, 450, 451; agreement 
with antecedent, 453-455; com¬ 
pound personal, 455-457 
Pronunciation, 427, 515-517; 548- 
550 

Proof, 206, 257 


590 


INDEX 


Proof reading, 299-302 
Proper nouns, 483-485, 549 
Publication, 261-302 
Punctuation, 69, 99, 228, 417, 488- 
504; of letter, 119, 120, 121, 122, 
124, 127, 146, 147, 148 
Purpose, of a composition, 97; of a 
speech, 53, 54 
Pyrrhic, 387 

Quality, 417, 421, 425, 426 
Quatrain, 396-399 

Question, ignoring the, 245, 246; beg¬ 
ging the, 246 

Questions, 423, 429; shall, will, 
should, would, 462; punctuation 
of, 497 

Questions for debate, 222, 257-260 
Quick, 467 

Quotation, 305,491,498; indirect, 462 
Quotation marks, 87, 498, 499 
Quotations, 87, 94, 201 

Radio, 67, 68 
Raise, rise, 458, 459 
Rate, 62 

Readers’ Guide, 91, 222 
Reading, oral, 414-428 
Reading, silent, 198-201, 414 
Rebuttal. See Refutation 
Reciting, 414-428 
Recreation Centers, 55, 56 
Redundance, syntactical, 468 
Reeves, Rosser, 406 
Reference books, 92, 94 
Reference data, 130 
Refutation, 242, 243, 244, 248-251, 
254, 255, 256 

Regents examinations, 115-118 
Reinforcement, 64 
Relative pronouns, 440, 455-457 
Repetition, 169, 267, 305, 429, 481 
Reports, 209-211 
Resonance, 425, 564 
Responsibility of Being a Perfect Baby, 
The, 187 

Restrictive modifiers, 456, 491-495 
Retained object, 435-440 
Review, book, 181-185 
Revision, 103, 104, 214, 311, 368 
Revolt of Mother, The, 364 
Rhyme, 393, 395, 396, 398, 399, 400, 
401, 408, 429 

Rhythm, 381, 382, 421, 429 


Right, 467 
Rise, raise, 458, 459 
Riverside Drive on a Sunday Morning, 
333, 334 
Roots, 533-535 
Rubaiyat, The, 399 
Rushlite, The, 266 
Ruskin, John, 203 

Sales letter, 137-141 
Salutation of letter, 124, 146-148, 
490, 496 

Same ... as, 456 
Saplings, 370 

Saturday Review of Literature, The, 
184 

Scansion, 390, 392 
Scarcely, 466 
Scenes, 333, 334 
Scholastic, 370 

School, 107; subjects, 108, 109; 
newspaper, 278, 279; magazine, 
293 

Scott, Walter, Sir, 39 
Screech Owl, The, 25, 26 
Secondary object, 435 
Secretary, 567, 572 
Secretary’s report, 209, 210 
Self-consciousness before an Audience, 
101, 102 

Self-Reliance, 76, 77 
Semicolon, 446, 495, 496 
Sensation, 320 
Senses, the five, 339, 384 
Sentence, simple, 433; topic, 76-78; 
clincher, 78, 79; newspaper, 272, 
273; compound, 273, 434; com¬ 
plex, 273, 439-443, 474-476; parts 
of, 433-445; analysis, 437, 438; 
compound-complex and complex- 
complex, 441; correct and effective, 
446-470; variety, 471-482; inter¬ 
rogative, 479; imperative, 479; ex¬ 
clamatory, 479 

Sentence sense, 446-449; half-sen- 
tence, 446-449; comma blunder, 
446-449 
Series, 477, 489 
Sesame and Lilies, 203 
Set, sit, 458 
Setting, 350, 364, 365 
Shakespeare, 208 

Shakespeare, William, 39, 40, 41, 392, 
416, 422, 423, 427, 557, 558, 559 


INDEX 


591 


Shall, should, 461 
Shall, will, 462-464 
Shelley, P. B., 39, 207, 384, 385, 557, 
558 

Short story, 343-380 
Should, shall, 461 
Should, would, 462-464 
Sidney, Philip, Sir, 384 
Signature, 127 
Silent reading, 198-201, 414 
Simile, 286, 551-554 
Simple sentence, 433 
Siuco 492 

Sincerity, 12, 13, 157, 293, 313, 425 

Singsong, 420 

Sit, set, 458 

Slang, 280, 282 

Slow, 467 

Smell, 467 

Snapshots, 289 

So, 9, 61, 491 

Social backgrounds, 94 

Solitude, 405, 406 

Somebody, some one, 452 

Something to say. See Material 

Sonnet, 401 

Sonnet Written by a Little Indian 
Girl, 401, 402 
Sort, kind, 466 
Sound, 467 

South Side Times, The, 291, 400 
Spacing, 74, 129 

Speaking, extemporaneous, 49-68; 

before writing, 192 
Specific words, 240, 306, 530, 531 
Spelling, 505-518 
Spenserian stanza, 401 
Spondee, 387, 388 
Sports, 195, 196, 282-284 
Stamp, 131, 134 
Stanzas, 395-402 
Statistics, 239, 246, 247, 257 
Stems, 533-535 
Stevenson, R. L., 418 
Stivers Defeats Faculty, 282, 283 
Stockton, Frank, 364 
Story telling. See Narration, News¬ 
paper, and Short Story 
Struggle, 345, 359 
Study, how to, 212 
Studying magazines, 293, 294 
Style, 148, 186, 368, 369 
Subject, 433, 434, 439, 469; of a 
theme or speech, 96; of infinitive. 


436, 440; case of, 450; agreement 
with verb, 451-453; compound, 452 
Subjunctive mood, 459 
Subordinate clauses, 433, 434, 462 
Subordinate conjunction, 440 
Substantive, 433 
Subtopics, 55, 82, 98, 99 
Such as, 456 
Suggs, Sarah, 397 
Summary, 282. See Precis 
Superlative degree, 465 
Suspense, 359 
Syllabification, 69, 70 
Synonyms, 94 

Syntactical redundance, 468 
Syntax, 433-445 

Talks to Writers, 205 
Tarkington, Booth, 9, 10 
Taste, 467 

Teacher, letter to, 154, 155 
Teaching An Elephant to Stand on 
Its Head, 473 
Telegram, 142-145 
Telephone conversation, 14-17 
Tennyson, Alfred, 385, 388, 394, 395, 
398 

Tense, 163, 267, 459-462; of infini¬ 
tive and participle, 460 
Terseness, 9, 60, 61, 124, 125, 142, 
263, 266, 269, 272, 273, 279, 306, 
320, 366, 367 

Tests, 132, 134, 404, 411, 445, 449, 
455, 457, 464, 470, 487, 494, 503, 
505, 520, 525, 536, 538, 542, 559 
Tetrameter, 382 
Thackeray, W. M., 427 
Than, from, 467 
Thanks, letter of, 157, 158 
That, 80, 440, 456, 457, 465 
The, 123 
The Grizzly, 28 
Theme, 345, 346, 349, 350 
Themes of Literature, 220 
There, expletive, 331 
This, these, 465 
Thoma, Leona, 405 
Though, 491 

Thought getting and giving, 414, 415, 
417. See Silent reading 
Time, 417, 421, 424, 425, 426, 428 
Tired Laborer, A, 330 
Title of composition, how to write, 
69, 74, 485 


592 


INDEX 


Title of short story, 369 
Titles, 124 
Titles of books, 485 
To a Skylark, 384 
To Have and To Hold, 184 
Topic sentence, 76-78 
Topical outline, 97-103 
Topics, conversation, 8, 9; main, 98, 
99, 100 

Tornado, A, 336 

To Us, In Trust, Their Tomorrows, 291 
Train, 410 

Training the Memory, 46 
Transition, 76, 239, 256 
Transitive verbs, 435, 458 
Treasurer, 573 
Trimeter, 382 
Triplet, 396 

Triteness. See Hackneyed phrases 
Triumph of Charis, 384 
Trochee, 386, 388, 389 
Truthfulness, 12 
Turvy-Top School, 397 

United States, 105, 106 
Unity, sentence, 272; paragraph, 79, 
80; composition, 104-106, 238 
Unless, without, 467, 468 
Ur, 61, 67 

Value of conversation, 3-5; of ex¬ 
temporaneous speaking, 49, 50; of 
ability to explain, 165; of precis 
writing, 198; of reading aloud, 414; 
of words, 519; of good enunciation 
and pronunciation, 537 
Van Dyke, Henry, 559 
Variety, in speaking, 62, 63; sen¬ 
tence, 124, 213, 272, 273, 313, 331- 
333,369; paragraph, 137; inverse, 
389, 390; in reading, 425, 426 
Verbals, 443, 444 

Verbs, 328, 423, 469; tense, 164, 267, 
459-462; active and passive, 273, 
458; object of, 435, 440, 469; in¬ 
direct object of, 435; transitive 
and intransitive, 435, 458; agree¬ 
ment of verb and subject, 451-453; 
principal parts of, 458; sit, set, lie, 
lay, rise, raise, 458; uses of sub¬ 
junctive, 459; shall, will, should, 
would, 462-464 
Verse, 278, 381-413, 408-411 
Verse, 406 
Vice president, 572 


Visit to the Blue Grotto, Our, 313, 314 

Vocabulary, 168, 519-536 

Vocations, 192-195 

Voice, 5, 6, 53, 60, 67, 562-566 

Voice of verbs, 273, 458 

Volition, 459 

Vowels, 539, 540, 546-548 

War and Heroism, 78, 79 
Ways of the Circus, The, 84, 473 
Webster, Daniel, 410 
Webster, Hutton, 204 
Well, 9, 61, 489 
Wendell, Barrett, 364 
What, 440, 456 
What Is a Ginkf 172, 173 
When, 171, 172 
Where, 171, 172 
Which, 441, 456, 457 
491 

White Feather’s Gift, 376-378 
Whitlock, Brand, 364 
Whittier, J. G., 39, 392, 559 
Who, 441, 456, 457 
Who’s who, 195, 196 
Why, misuse of, 161 
Wilcox, Ella W., 559 
Will, shall, 462-464 
Will, should, 461 
Williams, Blanche C., 350 
Wilson, Woodrow, 416 
Winter, 560 

Wish, subjunctive in, 459 
Without, unless, 467, 468 
Wolfe, Charles, 416 
Wordiness, 9, 104, 482 
Words, 427, 519-536; division of, 70, 
71; connective, 80, 83, 168; hack¬ 
neyed, 126, 127,148, 209; in speak¬ 
ing, 161; in explanation, 168; 
“journalese,” 273, 274; descriptive, 
321, 323, 324; in poetry, 402, 403 
Wordsworth, William, 207, 557 
World Is Too Much with Us, The, 206, 
207, 401, 415 
Would, should, 462-464 
Would, will, 461 
Writing out, 103 
Wrong, 467 
Wyatt, Edward, 409 

Yes, No, punctuation of, 490 
Yet, 491 
You, 452 

“You spirit,” 126 











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